HONG KONG – New York and San Diego-based Zentalis Pharmaceuticals Inc. has gained $20 million in a series A financing round to support a Chinese joint venture called Zentera Therapeutics.
Although, the appetite for biopharma IPOs in the U.S. slowed during the meltdown of the financial markets in March, the flow of new offerings has been steady this year, according to BioWorld, with 11 companies graduating to the public stage and listing on U.S. exchanges by the end of April, collectively raising $1.774 billion along the way. This amount is 9.5% higher than the $1.62 billion raised from 15 U.S. biopharma IPOs completed in the same period last year.
Against a backdrop of nearly 15 global biopharma IPOs on deck on a day when all major U.S. market indices fell, shares of cancer drug developer Zentalis Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNTL) shot up 29% to $23.20 on April 3 after an upsized initial filing to sell 9.2 million shares at a top-of-range $18 each.
