Oncology startup Black Diamond Therapeutics more than doubled in its trading debut after raising $201 million in an initial public offering.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based precision oncology medicine company targets undrugged mutations in patients with genetically defined cancers. Versant Ventures launched Black Diamond in December 2018 with founders David Epstein, Ph.D. and Elizabeth Buck, Ph.D.
Black Diamond's proprietary technology platform, Mutation-Allostery-Pharmacology (MAP) platform, is designed to allow the company to analyze population-level genetic sequencing data to identify oncogenic mutations that promote cancer across tumor types, group these mutations into families and develop a single small molecule therapy in a tumor-agnostic manner that targets a specific family of mutations.
Black Diamond announced the pricing of its initial public offering at $19 per share yesterday, and finished their first day of trading up 108 percent. The company has a market value of $1.3 billion.
The startup plans to use the IPO proceeds to develop its BDTX-189 cancer medicine, with a combined phase 1/2 clinical trial starting in the first half of the year.
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