Electra Therapeutics has unveiled that it plans to raise up to $341.9m in an initial public offering (IPO), with the funds expected to power Phase III development for its hyperinflammatory syndrome drug.
The biotech is offering 21,666,667 shares at a price of between $14 and $16 apiece. Electra will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker “ETRA”.
Electra announced its intention to go public last month, with the financial fleshing out of those plans arriving via a Form S-1/A on 15 September. If the price falls in the middle of the share price range, then the company will raise $296.6m – a value that could increase to $341.9m if underwriters exercise their option to buy additional shares also at $15 each.
The filing contains a detailed roadmap of how Electra plans to use the IPO proceeds. The lion’s share, $220m, will go towards advancing its asset, ipsoprubart, through an ongoing Phase II/III trial in secondary haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (sHLH), alongside affiliated regulatory and commercial readiness activities.
Ipsoprubart, a pan-SIRP monoclonal antibody, is Electra’s lead pipeline candidate. The drug is designed to selectively deplete pathological myeloid cells and T cells via binding to SIRPa/ß1/g. Effectively, it replaces broad immunosuppression with selective elimination of principal cells that drive disease. Electra likens its approach in immune-mediated disease to what precision oncology has achieved in cancer.
sHLH is a severe and often life-threatening type of hyperinflammatory syndrome. While there are various triggers for the condition, progression usually involves histiocytes and lymphocytes becoming overactive and attacking the body rather than their usual targets.
Ipsoprubart has already demonstrated positive clinical results in patients with sHLH. A Phase Ib trial with the therapy achieved a 100% eight-week overall survival (OS) rate and 100% overall response rate (ORR) in 12 frontline patients with malignancy-associated HLH (mHLH), the largest subset of sHLH and the population associated with the poorest outcomes.
Electra is also evaluating ipsoprubart in T/NK cell malignancies through an ongoing Phase I clinical trial, which will benefit from a $25m share of the IPO proceeds.
Meanwhile, around $50m will go towards advancing development for ELA822, the other clinical asset in the biotech’s pipeline. The SIRPg-specific antibody is in an ongoing Phase I trial in healthy volunteers, with a planned Phase I/II clinical trial in patients with T cell mediated immune disorders.
The IPO would cap a successful 12 months for Electra’s financing. In October 2025, the company raised $183m in a Series C round that Sanofi participated in.
Electra’s IPO comes at a time of renewed investor confidence in public listings. This year has seen two record-breaking biotech IPOs, reflecting the welcoming landscape that exists in the sector.
In April, obesity biotech Kailera Therapeutics conducted a $625m IPO, the largest of its kind for a biotech at the time.
However, Kailera did not hold this record for long, as cancer therapy developer Parabilis Medicines closed a $670m IPO just two months later to advance its helical peptides.
