Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

Cellular Dynamics Files for IPO Targeting $57.3M

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Stem cell technologies company Cellular Dynamics International today announced it has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to go public.

The Madison, Wis.-based firm filed its Form S-1 with SEC on Monday, saying it plans on an initial public offering to raise a maximum aggregate amount of $57.3 million. The price range for its shares and the number of shares to be offered have not been determined.

JP Morgan Securities is the sole book-running manager on the offering, while Cowen and Co. and Leerink Swann are co-managers.

CDI plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq Global market under ticker symbol "ICEL".

CDI was founded in 2004 and bills itself as a developer of stem cell technologies for in vitro drug development, in vivo cellular therapeutics, and stem cell banking. Its target markets also include toxicity testing and chemical safety, and total sales in its target markets reached about $17.1 billion in 2011 and are expected to grow to $40.5 billion by 2020, it said, citing statistics from Adivo Associates.

Its proprietary technology is called the iCell Operating System, and the company's product portfolio includes "true human cells in multiple cell types" called iCell products, which include cardiomyocytes, neurons, hepatocytes, and endothelial cells. CDI also sells human induced pluripotent stem cells and custom iPSCs.

"Scientists need access to cellular models that accurately represent the human biology they want to study," the company said in its Form S-1. "Our human cells reproduce, rather than approximate, the operation of the fully functioning human cell."

It also said that it had 128 customers in 2012, including biopharmaceutical companies, government research institutions, academic and nonprofit research institutions, clinical research organizations, and stem cell banks.

CDI had sales agreements with Roche and GlaxoSmithKline, which were completed in 2012 and has existing agreements with Eli Lilly and AstraZeneca, it said in its SEC document.

Last month, CDI announced plans to open a new facility within the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in California. The month before that, it received a $16 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to develop new stem cell lines.

At the start of the year, it inked a deal with AstraZeneca to develop new iPSCs for therapeutic discovery screening applications.

In 2012, CDI recorded $6.6 million in revenues, with a net loss of $22.3 million. For the first quarter of 2013, ended March 31, it had revenues of $2.4 million and a net loss of $5.7 million.

As of March 31, it had cash and cash equivalents of $28.5 million. Its total assets amount to $46.3 million, while its accumulated deficit is $87.8 million.

The company has 115 full- and part-time employees.

The management team includes Robert Palay, a co-founder, who is currently chairman and CEO. Thomas Palay, a co-founder, is president and vice chairman. Emile Nuwaysir is VP of R&D, manufacturing and quality systems, as well as COO. David Snyder serves as CFO. James Thomson, a co-founder, is currently CSO.

CDI is the second firm in the life sciences tools space to file for an IPO in the past few weeks. NanoString Technologies' filed for an IPO two weeks ago, targeting $86.3 million in proceeds.