Houston-based Kiromic BioPharma Inc. (Nasdaq: KRBP) priced its initial public offering of 1.25 million shares at $12 each.
That was the low end of the previously expected range of $12 to $14, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Just after shares began trading Oct. 16, the price dropped to a low of $10.30 per share, down 15%, according to Yahoo Finance. But the stock recovered much of the ground lost and closed at $11.50 per share, down 4.17%.
The IPO is expected to close on Oct. 20, according to a press release, and underwriters have a 45-day option to purchase up to an additional 187,500 shares to cover any over-allotments. ThinkEquity, a division of Fordham Financial Management Inc., is acting as sole book-running manager for the offering. Paulson Investment Company LLC is acting as co-manager.
Kiromic qualifies as an "emerging growth company" under the Jumpstart Our Business Act of 2012 and therefore has fewer reporting requirements for its filings than other public companies, according to the registration statement filed with the SEC.
Kiromic calls itself a "target discovery and gene-editing company utilizing artificial intelligence and a proprietary neural network platform with a therapeutic focus on immuno-oncology." The company's primary technology can identify new cancer immunological targets for T cells and B cells.
However, the company has not generated any revenue from sales so far and continues to incur significant expenses related to its research and development as well as general operations. Thus, the company has reported losses in each period since its main business operations began in 2012.
Kiromic also has one wholly owned subsidiary, GreenPlanet Pharma Inc., an oral health care business that has developed a mouthwash. GreenPlanet also has not generated any revenue.
Had the IPO been priced at $13 — the midpoint of the expected range — Kiromic estimated it would have received net proceeds of nearly $12.69 million. The company plans to use the proceeds it does receive primarily for clinical trials for its Alexis Isoform Mesothelin EOC and PD-1 product candidates, intellectual property protection and reinforcement, investigational new drug applications and IND-enabling trials, and working capital and general corporate purposes.
Kiromic's CEO, Chiriva Internati, has been an associate professor at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, Texas.
In September, the Wall Street Journal reported that 2020 could be the biggest year ever for IPOs. More than 80% of the money raised by this year's IPOs has been attributed to health care, technology and blank-check companies, the latter of which also has been popular in Houston. Three Houston-based blank-check companies have filed for or completed their IPOs in the past month alone.
