Aziyo Biologics Inc. has begun publicly trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
The Montgomery County regenerative medicine company made its debut Thursday under ticker symbol AZYO with a $17.32 share price, exceeding its initial public offering price of $17 per share. It’s positioned to raise about $50 million, offering 2.94 million shares.
The stock reached an $18 high and $13.75 low, before closing at $14.50 apiece Thursday. Trading volume on the first day totaled more than 2.04 million shares. The stock opened Friday at $14.03, and was trading down 3.9% to $13.94 per share early afternoon
We’ve reached out to Aziyo for comment and will update this story as we hear back.
Proceeds would fund new sales hires, an expanded marketing program, product development and clinical research activities. It would also be used for working capital and other general purposes, as well as “to acquire, in-license or invest in products, technologies or businesses that are complementary to our business,” Aziyo disclosed previously in Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
The IPO comes after the business filed in mid-September for its IPO, five years after spinning out of nonprofit tissue processing company Tissue Banks International. The business has raised about $45 million to date, including a recent $5 million in equity funding. It employed about 150 people as of the end of June, according to its SEC filings.
Silver Spring-based Aziyo sells human tissue products that surgeons implant into the body and to regenerate tissue and reduce complications that come with surgery. It also has a business-to-business model, where it develops and manufactures the products, then hands the commercialization off to partners. Its products include CanGaroo, used in patients getting pacemakers and defibrillators, and SimpliDerm, a material used for reconstructive surgery, among others.
Aziyo took in $42.9 million in total net sales during 2019, a 10% bump from 2018, though it experienced relatively flat net losses of nearly $12 million that year. For the first six months of 2020, the company saw a slight dip in revenue, bringing in $18.4 million. It posted significantly wider net losses during the first half of the year, however. Aziyo's net loss at the end of June was $9.7 million, compared to $6.1 million at the same point of 2019.
The Maryland company follows two other local biotechs that debuted recently in the publicly traded arena: Gaithersburg’s Viela Bio Inc. (NASDAQ: VIE) and Beltsville’s NextCure Inc. (NASDAQ: NXTC). It marks the first Greater Washington biotech exit this year, and comes after other D.C.-area companies — Reston telemedicine firm SOC Telemed and Silver Spring documentary streaming service CuriosityStream among them — pursued mergers with blank-check companies during 2020 to go public. Meanwhile, other local biotechs sit on deck, including Rockville vaccine maker Immunomic Therapeutics Inc., which revealed its intention to IPO next year.
