Rockville’s Sensei Biotherapeutics Inc. is just about ready for its initial public offering.
The company, which filed in mid-January trade publicly on the Nasdaq stock exchange, expects to issue 5.89 million shares of common stock priced from $16 to $18 apiece, according to a document filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Under those terms, Sensei is poised to raise between $94.16 million and $105.93 million, with a proposed maximum aggregate offering price of nearly $121.82 million if the underwriters exercise their option to buy up to 882,750 additional shares.
The biotech, set to trade under ticker symbol “SNSE,” has not yet disclosed a date for the IPO.
Net proceeds from this offering would fund development of the company’s lead product candidate, which is now in a phase 1/2 clinical trial for squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, according to Sensei. That study is expected to produce top-line data by the end of 2021. The funding would also support working capital and other general corporate purposes, other candidates in its clinical and preclinical pipeline, and the development of its ImmunoPhage vaccine platform — which uses bacteriophage, a type of virus that infects bacteria, to elicit the body’s immune response.
Sensei has also taken that technology to the Covid-19 arena, and has discussed its approach and potential clinical trial design with the Food and Drug Administration, it said previously in its filing with the SEC.
“We believe that the net proceeds from this offering, together with our existing cash, will enable us to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements through the completion of several Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials,” the company wrote in its filing. “However, this funding will not be sufficient for us to fund any of our product candidates through regulatory approval, and we will need to raise additional capital to complete the development and commercialization of SNS-301 and our other product candidates and in connection with our continuing operations and other planned activities.
Sensei Bio started in 1999 as Panacea Pharmaceuticals Inc. before taking its current name in December 2017. The original business garnered recognition in 2007 for its ability to diagnose lung cancer, before a period of turmoil that included layoffs and departures, cuts to its physical footprint and a lawsuit alleging unpaid wages. The company went silent for years but, but came out of the woodwork in late 2015 with $15 million in Series E funding.
Sensei President and CEO John Celebi joined the company in spring 2018 after positions with Boston's X4 Pharmaceuticals, Burlingame, California-based Igenica Biotherapeutics and ArQule of Woburn, Massachusetts. Sensei counted 25 employees at the end of September, and said in its filings it expects to hire more as it transforms into a public company.
Sensei Bio follows several other local companies into the public realm, including Gaithersburg immunotherapy company NexImmune within the same week, Silver Spring’s Aziyo Biologics (NASDAQ: AZYO), Beltsville’s NextCure (NASDAQ: NXTC), Reston’s SOC Telemed (NASDAQ: TLMD) and more. That list also includes Gaithersburg’s Viela Bio (NASDAQ: VIE), which Monday reached a deal to be acquired by Dublin’s Horizon Therapeutics (NASDAQ: HZNP) for $3.1 billion.
