reward system for its partners. Under a more typical arrangement, academic partners would have to wait years and years for commercial success to reap rewards from royalties.
But giving the academic groups huge chunks of stock could have made the giant Series A and B fundraising push a more difficult sell to other private investors.
“This mechanism allows us to pay additional money rather than giving it all in shares, and in a scenario where our investors are also making money,” Bishop said. “Some institutions don’t want stock, but for the ones who did, it’s a fair way of aligning their participation with some of our stock success.”
When asked if Seattle Children’s didn’t want stock, Bishop would only say, “Some institutions did, and some didn’t.”
Seattle Children’s representatives did not return a request for comment.
It’s the second big IPO for a cancer immunotherapy firm this week. Bellicum Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BLCM]]) priced 7.35 million shares Wednesday night at $19 apiece, raising $140 million before fees. At those totals, Bellicum upsized its offering by 1.1 million shares and beat its projected $15 to $17 per share range. Bellicum’s total haul could end up even higher if its underwriters exercise their right to buy another 1,102,500 shares at the IPO price.
