Obesity drug developer BioAge seeks up to $587 mln valuation in US IPO
Sept 18 (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 (MBX.O), 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, being developed to treat obesity, is a GLP-1 agonist, just as Eli Lilly’s (LLY.N) Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s (NOVOb.CO) Wegovy.
Some analysts estimate that the market for these new weight loss drugs could reach $150 billion by the early 2030s.
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