Managing Editor

With a pivotal trial slated to start next quarter for lead immunotherapy candidate AGS-003 in metastatic renal cell carcinoma, Argos Therapeutics Inc. decided to take a chance on the initial public offering (IPO) market, which, after a couple of dry months, seems to be picking back up again.

Argos is the third firm in the past month and a half to file an S-1, following Clovis Oncology Inc. and Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc., and the Durham, N.C.-based firm's filing comes only a day after specialty pharma firm Horizon Pharma Inc. priced at $49.5 million. Like nearly all firms that have priced IPOs in the past year, Northbrook, Ill.-based Horizon's offering came at a significant discount, about 42 percent below the $86 million originally proposed. (See BioWorld Today, July 29, 2011.)

So odds are good that Argos will face the same fate. The company is hoping to raise $86.25 million, but the specific number of shares and share pricing will come later. Lazard Capital Markets LLC, Canaccord Genuity Inc., Needham & Co. LLC and BMO Capital Markets Corp. will serve as underwriters.

Upon pricing, Argos would trade on Nasdaq under the ticker "ARGS."

Hoping to follow in the successful footsteps of Dendreon Corp., which last year gained approval of the first autologous cell-based therapy for cancer, Argos plans to use proceeds from the proposed IPO to support the upcoming Phase III trial of AGS-003, the lead compound to emerge from its Arcelis RNA-loaded dendritic cell-based technology platform. The company aims to start enrolling patients in the fourth quarter in the study designed to test AGS-003 in combination with kinase inhibitor Sutent (sunitinib, Pfizer Inc.)

Promising interim Phase II data last year showed that AGS-003 plus Sutent resulted in a median progression-free survival (PFS) of 14.9 months for intermediate risk and six months for poor risk in patients with metastatic renal-cell carcinoma (mRCC). The drug also has shown promise in newly diagnosed mRCC patients, with data presented at this year's American Society of Clinical Oncology showing a median PFS of 11.9 months for patients receiving AGS-003 plus Sutent compared to eight months for historical control.

Elsewhere in its pipeline, Argos has AGS-004, which is in a Phase IIb study in HIV. That trial is being funded completely by a grant from the National Institutes of Health. AGS-009, a monoclonal antibody targeted for lupus, is in Phase Ia testing, while AGS-010 is in preclinical development for psoriasis and organ transplant indications.

Argos, which was founded as Merix Bioscience in the late 1990s, had about $3 million on its balance sheet as of March 31. The company last raised money in a $35.2 million Series B round in 2008 led by TVM Capital, with participation from Mizuho Capital, Morningside Group, Japan Asia Investment Co., Lumira Capital, Forbion Capital CDP Capital, Intersouth Partners, Aurora Capital and GeneChem. (See BioWorld Today, April 24, 2008.)

As of June 30, Argos had about 12.8 million shares outstanding.