Obesity drug developer BioAge seeks up to $587 million valuation in US IPO

(Reuters) - Obesity-focused biotech BioAge Labs said on Wednesday it was seeking a valuation of as much as $587 million in its initial public offering in the United States, according to a regulatory filing.

Healthcare firms have done comparatively well in an otherwise subdued U.S. IPO market in 2024, which analysts touted as a comeback year for public offerings.

The Richmond, California-based company will join several biotech firms listing their shares this year. The trend comes as anti-obesity drug developers have attracted Wall Street interest and secured the support of several venture capital heavyweights.

Shares of MBX Biosciences, which is developing therapies that target conditions such as diabetes and obesity, jumped nearly 44% in their Nasdaq debut last week.

Bioage's experimental drug, azelaprag, is being developed to treat obesity, in combination with GLP-1 agonists such as Eli Lilly's Zepbound and Novo Nordisk's Wegovy.

Some analysts estimate that the market for these new weight loss drugs could reach $150 billion by the early 2030s.

BioAge has initiated a mid-stage trial of its drug in combination with Zepbound and also plans to test it in combination with Wegovy in the first half of 2025.

Part of the proceeds from the IPO are expected to be used to advance the development of azelaprag into late-stage studies, the company said.

The proposed IPO comes months after BioAge raised $170 million in a funding round led by life sciences investment firm Sofinnova Investments.

Sofinnova Venture Partners currently has a 7.3% beneficial ownership in the firm. It plans to reduce its ownership to about 5.3% after the offering.

BioAge will list its shares on the Nasdaq under the symbol "BIOA."

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Jefferies and Citigroup are the underwriters for the offering.

(This story has been corrected to say that the drug is being tested along with GLP-1 treatments, and not classified as a GLP-1 drug, in bullet point 2 and paragraph 5)

(Reporting by Pritam Biswas and Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)