UK Life science VC investors cheer planned IPO of Autolus

UK Life science VC investors cheer planned IPO of Autolus

Three high-profile UK life science investors – Syncona (SYNC), Arix Bioscience (ARIX) and Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) – could benefit from the possible US IPO of the engineered T-cell therapy company, Autolus, following that company’s disclosure yesterday of a filing of a confidential draft F1 submission. All three investors hold substantial shareholdings in Autolus, a UK-based firm spun of of University College London. These could show significant gains if an IPO establishes a higher price than that of the company’s last private round, as is normally the case.

Syncona, a hybrid biotech investor/fund-of-funds, has the largest interest holding of the three, at 38%. This is carried on its books at £84m, suggesting Autolus’ last private valuation was £221m/$305m. However, the confidential F1 registration statement provides a mechanism under which Autolus’ bankers can test to market for the stock, which could establish a higher value, potentially considerably so. Autolus represented 13.5% of Arix’s NAV and 4.1% of WPCT’s NAV.

Autolus has to date raised the equivalent of ~$180m – $80m in a Series C financing in September last year and £70m in prior fundraisings, including a £40m in a Series B in 2016 with WPCT and US specialist investor Perceptive Bioscience taking up shares. Autolus is currently conducting three Phase I/II studies with dual-targeting CAR-T candidates. The first , AUTO2, a dual targeting CAR-T against the  BCMA and TACI cancer antigens, is in development for multiple myeloma. The second programme, AUTO3,  is in development for DLBCL and pediatric acute lymphocytic leukaemia, and the third, AUTO4, for T-cell lymphoma.

Autolus’ move to test the markets is almost certainly timed to try to capitalise on the interest in the engineered T cell sector prompted by the recently-announced acquisition of Juno by Celgene. This deal put a $9.7bn value, net of cash, on Juno, whose lead programme JCAR017 (lisocabtagene maraleucel) is a CAR-T therapy in a pivotal trial for relapsed and/or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). JCAR017 is expected to be filed for regulatory approval later this year. The current market valuations, cash holdings and enterprise values (market cap less net cash) of CAR-T companies is shown in the table below.