San Diego’s Tandem Diabetes Sets IPO Terms

San Diego’s Tandem Diabetes Care set the terms for its IPO yesterday, offering more than 7.1 million shares of its stock at a price between $13 and $15 a share, according to an amended regulatory filing.

The medical device maker was not among the companies expected to go public this week, according to a list of 15 anticipated IPOs (including Twitter) issued yesterday by Renaissance Capital, a Connecticut firm that provides institutional research about newly public companies.

With innovative insulin pump technology housed in a smartphone-like device, Tandem Diabetes says its goal is to become the leading provider of insulin pump therapy. The market, however, already has many established players, including Minneapolis-based Medtronic; Bedford, MA-based Insulet; Switzerland’s Roche; New Brunswick, NJ-based Johnson & Johnson; South Korea’s Sooil; and Japan’s Nipro.

At the mid-point of the company’s price range, Tandem Diabetes estimates it would receive net proceeds of about $90.1 million from the IPO, or $104 million if underwriters fully exercise their option to purchase more than 1 million additional shares. Trading in Tandem Diabetes would take place on the Nasdaq market under ticker symbol TNDM.

Tandem Diabetes initially filed confidentially on Aug. 12, according to Renaissance Capital. The company’s filing became public on Oct. 7. The company was founded in 2006 and has raised a total of nearly $89 million in venture funding from firms that include Delphi Ventures, Domain Associates, TPG Biotechnology Partners, HLM Venture Partners, and Kearny Venture Partners.

As I reported last month, Tandem Diabetes says its t:slim device is the first insulin pump to feature a high-resolution color touchscreen. The device uses a miniaturized pumping mechanism that draws insulin from a flexible bag in a replaceable cartridge. Conventional insulin pumps rely on a plunger-type mechanism. Tandem Diabetes also developed easy-to-navigate software and a Web-based data management application that makes it easier for patients to track their insulin use.

Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.