AbSci prices $100M public offering to fund AI drug discovery
What's the deal? AbSci, the AI drug discovery company, has priced a $100 million underwritten public offering of its common stock.
The Nasdaq-listed firm is selling shares at $3.00 each, with underwriters granted a 30-day option to buy additional stock on the same terms.
Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Jefferies, and TD Cowen are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering.
Why now? AbSci plans to use the proceeds to advance its internally developed programs and invest in its Integrated Drug Creation platform.
The rest will go towards working capital and general corporate purposes.
What could go wrong? Selling new shares dilutes existing investors, a recurring concern for biotech firms that raise repeatedly through public markets.
The company remains pre-profit and is betting heavily on a platform that has yet to deliver an approved drug.
The signal: As a late-stage company, AbSci is tapping public markets rather than private rounds to fund its Integrated Drug Creation platform, lining up bulge-bracket banks Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan to anchor the raise. The breadth of that underwriting syndicate signals continued institutional appetite for AI-driven protein and drug discovery, even as the broader biopharma sector leans heavily on follow-on offerings to bankroll costly development.
Read more: ainvest.com
Image credit: WaStateGov
