Lycia Therapeutics raises $318M in upsized Nasdaq IPO
What's the deal? Lycia Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech developing drugs that degrade disease-causing extracellular proteins, priced an upsized initial public offering of 17,640,000 shares at $18 each. The offering is expected to bring gross proceeds of roughly $318 million before costs, with all shares sold by the company.
Why now? Lycia's stock is set to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on October 23, 2026, under the symbol "LYCA." The offering is expected to close on October 26, subject to customary conditions.
What's the endgame? The South San Francisco company is built on the work of Nobel laureate Carolyn Bertozzi, a Stanford chemistry professor. Its proprietary LYTAC platform generates cataLYTAC degraders designed for repeated catalytic elimination of disease-causing proteins.
Lycia's lead candidates are LCA-0061, a degrader of IgE for food allergy and other allergic diseases, and LCA-0321, designed to deplete the autoantibodies that cause Graves' disease. The initial focus spans autoimmune, inflammatory, and allergic diseases.
Who's involved? Jefferies, TD Cowen, Evercore ISI, and Guggenheim SecuritiesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → are joint book-running managers, with LifeSci CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → acting as passive book-running manager. Lycia has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to buy up to 2,646,000 additional shares.
The signal: The upsized pricing — meaning Lycia enlarged the offering amid demand — points to investor appetite for clinical-stage biotechs working on novel protein-degradation approaches.
Read more: business.theantlersamerican.com
Image credit: Lycia Therapeutics
