A successful crowdfunding round has led a Houston biotech company to revisit the idea of going public after turning away from the option last year.
FibroBiologics, a clinical-stage company specializing in cell therapy using a type of cell known as a fibroblast, closed its crowdfunding round in early April after launching the round on the platform StartEngine in January. The round hit nearly $5 million with 718 investors, according to the company’s offering page on StartEngine.
FibroBiologics co-founder and CEO Pete O’Heeron told the Houston Business Journal the funding would help the company progress towards its eventual listing as a public company. According to the company’s website, the crowdfunding round set records on StartEngine’s platform, including the highest amount raised per investor for a biotech firm with $6,900 per investor.
“It was kind of the first time we'd ever pounded our chests publicly and gone out to the general retail investor community,” O’Heeron said. “We couldn’t have been more happy with the way it turned out.”
According to a Form C/U document FibroBiologics filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company will pay up to 9% of the offering to SmartEngine as compensation.
O’Heeron said company leaders had explored different options to go public in 2022, but market conditions led them to attempt crowdfunding. He could not provide a timeline for FibroBiologic’s eventual public filing but hinted the move would come soon.
FibroBiologics has also been in conversations with the Texas Medical Center and CTMC, a joint venture between the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and biotech firm National Resilience Inc. O’Heeron said an eventual goal was to open manufacturing space once the company's products are ready.
Securing its crowdfunding and going public would give FibroBiologics the capital it needs to fund further research and development. The company holds more than 150 patents in the U.S. and internationally for a variety of applications for fibroblasts, including therapies for degenerative disc disease, multiple sclerosis and cancer.
FibroBiologics has received Investigational New Drug (IND) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its degenerative disc disease therapy, called CybroCell, and O'Heeron said the IND study would be completed after the company raises its funds.
Other upcoming moves for FibroBiologics include a planned IND filing for a multiple sclerosis treatment and a new program targeted at extending human life by using fibroblasts to regenerate the thymus and spleen.
According to the National Human Genome Research Institute, fibroblasts are cells that help form connective tissue within the body. They can be used as alternatives to stem cells for certain therapies, and O’Heeron described both cells as the backbone of treating chronic diseases.
“The future of medicine and the cures for chronic diseases will come from either biotech itself or biotech absorbed into big pharma,” O’Heeron said. “In terms of curing a disease, in terms of actually eradicating it, that's going to come through cell therapy. A biologic process will have to cure a biologic process, and a chemical process will not cure a biologic process."
Through the investments of CTMC, which expanded its clean room capacity in April, and the Texas Medical Center’s new Helix Park campus and BioPort manufacturing facility, life sciences infrastructure is taking shape in Houston. However, O’Heeron wants to see a stronger investor base for companies that have passed the initial stage of investment, as well as more manufacturing spaces.
“The access to early capital [in Houston] is as good as you can find anywhere else,” O’Heeron said. “But there’s an incredible shortage of lab space in Houston, so hopefully more people will come in with lab space, incubators and animal labs. We want to stay here and build that infrastructure ourselves."
