For many people, managing an illness means chronic treatment. Scribe Therapeutics has a different vision: genetic medicines that deliver lasting effects to the general public. With its main program set to report its first human data next year, Scribe has joined the public markets, raising $128.7 million.
“While current genetic medicines are largely limited to rare diseases, we are designing our technologies for use in common diseases affecting millions of people,” Scribe said in his report. IPO Filing. “By targeting prevalent diseases with significant unmet need and high clinical burden, we aim to usher in a new era of broadly scalable, transformative and preventive genetic medicines. »
Strong investor interest allowed Scribe to add more than 1 million shares to its planned stock offering, bringing the deal size to 8.58 million shares. Late Thursday, Scribe Award these shares at $15 each, which was the high end of the company’s projected price range. Shares of Scribe are expected to begin trading on Nasdaq on Friday under the ticker symbol “SCTX.”
Scribe, based in Alameda, California, selected cardiometabolic disorders as its first focus. Lead therapeutic candidate STX-1150 is intended to reduce “bad” cholesterol, which is a risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). This therapy is designed to reduce LDL cholesterol by repressing the expression of PCSK9, a protein that, in large amounts, reduces the liver’s ability to remove cholesterol from the blood. Injectable PCSK9 inhibitors are already available from Amgen, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Novartis. Last week, Merck Receives FDA Approval for Lipfendra, an Oral PCSK9 Inhibitor. Although the frequency of administration of these therapies varies, they are all taken chronically.
Early genetic medicines brought permanent changes. The STX-1150 is based on Scribe’s proprietary Epigenetic Long-Term Repressor (ELXR) technology, which installs epigenetic marks at targeted locations on a gene without modifying the DNA. These marks are not permanent and can be reversed if necessary. By making these marks on the PCSK9 gene, STX-1150 aims to repress the expression of the PCSK9 protein gene.
In tests in monkeys, Scribe reported that a single dose of a prototype STX-1150 resulted in a therapeutically significant reduction in LDL cholesterol. This reduction lasted two years and the prototype was well tolerated. Scribe said this sustainability could solve another problem with cardiovascular medications: Adherence to currently available cardiovascular medications ranges from 40 to 50 percent. The company believes the long-acting effects of its drug could help more people stay on a drug regimen for longer.
“We believe that correcting the chronic care model in ASCVD will not come from adding another pill to the regimen or slightly modifying existing modalities, but rather from a genetic medicine solution that can deliver nature’s genetic blueprint for better cardiovascular health to all patients,” Scribe said in its IPO filing.
A phase 1 study of STX-1150 is underway in Australia in 64 adults with elevated LDL cholesterol and increased risk of ASCVD. The company expects preliminary data to be available in the first half of 2027. The Scribe pipeline also includes two preclinical programs for ASCVD. Both are based on the company’s X-Editor (XE) platform, a CRISPR-based editing technology that develops drugs with the potential to be one-time treatments. STX-1200 edits and inactivates the LPA gene to prevent high levels of the cholesterol-carrying protein Lp(a), while STX-1400 edits APOC3, a protein that regulates the metabolism of triglycerides, a type of fat. Both programs are supported by up to $25.7 million in grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
Scribe’s science is based on research conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, in the laboratories of Jennifer Doudna, a Nobel Prize winner for her CRISPR discoveries, and David Savage. Both are co-founders of Scribe. The company is led by co-founder and CEO Benjamin Oakes, who worked at the Doudna and Savage labs.
Since Scribe’s inception, the company had raised $150 million before its IPO, according to the filing. The most recent funding was a $100 million Series B round in 2021. Scribe earns revenue from partnerships with the pharmaceutical industry. The biggest source of income from this collaboration comes from Prevaila subsidiary of Eli Lilly developing in vivo CRISPR-based therapies for neuromuscular and neurological diseases. In addition to the cash payments, Prevail made an equity investment in Scribe. Andreesen Horowitz is Scribe’s largest shareholder with a nearly 17% stake after the IPO, according to the filing. Eli Lilly owns a 6.5% stake in Scribe post-IPO.
At the end of the first quarter of this year, Scribe reported that its cash position stood at $49.7 million. This capital, combined with proceeds from the IPO, will support the pipeline. Scribe plans to spend between $30 million and $35 million to continue development of Phase 1 of the STX-1150 main program. The two preclinical programs, STX-1400 and STX-1200, will each receive between $15 million and $20 million to test them in humans and read preliminary phase 1 data. Scribe estimates its capital will last until the first half of 2029.
Image: Yuichiro Chino, Getty Images
