Rapport Therapeutics, an organization whose neuroscience expertise comes from Johnson & Johnson, joined the general public markets Friday, elevating $154 million for proof-of-concept testing of a lead program in growth for a typical type of epilepsy.
Rapport had revealed its plans to go public final month. Late Thursday, the biotech priced its providing of 8 million shares at $17 apiece, which was the midpoint of the worth vary it set earlier this week. At that worth, the Boston-based firm’s IPO raised $136 million. Concurrent with the inventory providing, Rapport raised one other $18 million in a personal placement, bringing complete proceeds to $154 million.
Shares of Rapport now commerce on the Nasdaq underneath the inventory image “RAPP.” In Rapport’s first day of buying and selling, its shares closed at $20.80 apiece, up 22.3% from the IPO worth.
Lead Rapport drug candidate RAP-219 is being developed as a remedy for focal epilepsy, a type of the dysfunction brought on by intermittent irregular electrical exercise in sure elements of the mind. An estimated 1.8 million individuals within the U.S. have focal epilepsy, accounting for 60% of epilepsy sufferers, Rapport mentioned in its IPO submitting. Focal epilepsy will be handled with anti-seizure medicines that hit the AMPA receptor. However this receptor is discovered all through the mind, so hitting it might result in severe uncomfortable side effects that lead many sufferers to cease utilizing AMPA-targeting medicine.
Rapport goals to extra selectively hit AMPA receptors, which might vastly enhance the aspect impact profile. The corporate’s small molecule medicine goal receptor related proteins (RAPs), proteins that regulate receptor expression and performance. RAP-219 targets a RAP for the AMPA receptor discovered solely in sure areas of the mind. Within the IPO submitting, Rapport says this strategy provides the potential for a wider therapeutic index, the vary of doses during which a remedy is efficient with out inflicting unacceptable antagonistic results. The corporate can be exploring different neurological indications for its lead molecule.
RAP-219 and the RAP platform expertise that developed the drug had been licensed from Janssen, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary. The biotech is getting ready to advance its lead drug candidate to a Part 2a proof-of-concept take a look at. The corporate’s pipeline additionally contains RAP-199, a drug that targets the identical RAP as RAP-219, however in a means that gives totally different chemical and pharmacokinetic properties.
Since its 2022 launch, Rapport had raised about $250 million previous to the IPO, the prospectus reveals. Founding traders Third Rock Ventures and Johnson & Johnson Innovation—JJDC respectively personal 22.9% and seven% post-IPO stakes of the corporate, based on the submitting. Arch Enterprise Companions owns a ten.5% stake in Rapport. The non-public placement consists of 1.06 million shares offered on the IPO worth. The patrons are Sofinnova Ventures and Goldman Sachs, the submitting reveals. As of the top of the primary quarter of this yr, Rapport reported a $193.2 million money place. Rapport mentioned it expects that cash, along with the brand new capital raised, will assist the corporate by the top of 2026.
Rapport will put its new capital to work instantly on RAP-219’s mid-stage medical trial, anticipated to begin within the second half of this yr. The corporate has budgeted $100 million to take this program by the completion of proof-of-concept trials in focal epilepsy, peripheral neuropathic ache, and bipolar dysfunction. One other $40 million is earmarked for a second multiple-ascending dose examine and positron emission tomography trial, and for advancing growth of a long-acting model of RAP-219. The corporate additionally plans to advance RAP-199 by Part 1 growth.
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