AI drug discovery firm Iambic raises $150 million in Nasdaq IPO priced at $16 a share
Iambic plans to put $75 million into its HER2 drug IAM1363 and $20 million into its AI models, and expects cash to last through 2028.
By World Nexus Group Editorial
Iambic Therapeutics, a San Diego company that uses AI to find and optimise drugs, raised $150 million in a Nasdaq initial public offering priced on 14 October 202612. It sold close to 9.4 million shares at $16 each, and its stock was due to begin trading on Thursday 15 October under the ticker IAM12.
The offering and the spending plan
The raise landed exactly on the target Iambic had set1. Gross proceeds could grow by around $22.5 million if underwriters take up their full option on a further 1.4 million shares at the same price1.
Most of the money goes to the clinic rather than the software. Iambic has said it expects to put $75 million into IAM1363, an oral, brain-penetrant HER2 inhibitor now in a phase 1 study in patients with advanced HER2-altered solid tumours, and to use part of that to start phase 2 and phase 3 work1. A registrational trial could begin as soon as 2027, according to a regulatory filing2. The plan earmarks $15 million to take the KIF18A inhibitor IAM217 into patients and another $15 million for a phase 1 study of IAM-C1, a dual CDK2 and CDK4 inhibitor aimed at breast cancer and CCNE1-amplified cancers1. A further $20 million is set aside for what Iambic calls its "molecular superintelligence platform", including new versions of its Enchant and NeuralPLexer models1.
Iambic held $207.9 million in cash at the end of June and has said the IPO should fund its plans through the end of 20281. Private investors had put $462 million into the company since its 2019 launch, with earlier backers including Catalio Capital Management, Abingworth and Illumina Ventures2. It has 171 full-time staff, according to recent filings1.
What it means for the market
The listing tests whether public investors will pay for an AI discovery platform once it carries clinical assets. Iambic arrives with a long partner list: Revolution Medicines, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Lundbeck, Nvidia and Bayer have signed with it, AbbVie joined last month, and Takeda agreed in February to a multiyear platform deal worth up to $1.7 billion in milestones1. Fierce Biotech describes the Takeda agreement as one of the largest AI drug discovery deals so far1.
The window is open. Twenty-five biotechs have priced IPOs in 2026 by BioPharma Dive's count, well above 2025's total2. Iambic follows by a week the listings of Lilly-backed TRex Bio, which raised $116.7 million, and Retension, which raised $45 million1.
The record of the group is mixed. BioPharma Dive notes that several companies built on AI have struggled after going public, and that AI hype has raised concern about companies overstating what they can deliver2. Iambic's own filing makes broad claims, describing a pipeline aimed at "multi-billion dollar market opportunities"2.
Caveats
The evidence for the lead drug is early. IAM1363 has phase 1 data only, which Iambic says showed anti-tumour activity and an encouraging safety profile in heavily pretreated patients2. IAM217 and the CDK2 and CDK4 programme have not yet entered human testing, and both could do so next year2. The upsized proceeds depend on the underwriters' option, and the reports give no first-day trading result.
Sources
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