Biotech company Alto Neuroscience, Inc. (NYSE: ANRO) announced the pricing of its upsized initial public offering (IPO) of 8,040,000 shares of common stock at a public offering price of $16.00 per share. Alto had originally suggested a price range of $14-$16.
The aggregate gross proceeds are expected to be approximately $128.6 million before deducting underwriting discounts commissions and other offering expenses payable by Alto. The company said in its filing that it plans to use the proceeds to develop its Alto 100 – Alto 300 drugs.
The shares are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on February 2, 2024 under the ticker symbol “ANRO.” The offering is expected to close on February 6, 2024, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
Alto Neuroscience is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that leverages neurobiology to develop personalized and highly effective treatment options. Its website states, “We are pioneering an approach to psychiatric drug development which matches the right patient with the right Alto drug based on AI-derived brain biomarkers.”
In the company’s offering, it stated, “We have successfully completed Phase 2a trials for our two most advanced product candidates, ALTO-100 and ALTO-300, in more than 200 patients each. In each of these trials, we identified patient populations potentially more likely to respond based on objectively defined biomarker profiles, and then prospectively replicated these biomarker findings in independent datasets from within the same trial. We leveraged these biomarker findings to initiate a placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized Phase 2b trial for each candidate in patients with MDD characterized by an objective biomarker.”
Green Market Report reported that Numinus Wellness recently sold its shares in Alto.
Financials
Alto Neurosciences told investors that it has funded its operations primarily through proceeds of approximately $142.7 million from the sales of convertible preferred stock and borrowings under its loan and security agreement. It has not generated any revenue from product sales and has incurred recurring losses since its inception in 2019.
The net losses were $27.7 million and $9.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. As of September 30, 2023, the company had an accumulated deficit of $65.7 million. Alto said it expects to continue to generate operating losses and negative operating cash flows for the foreseeable future. As of September 30, 2023, it had cash and cash equivalents of $51.3 million. In November 2023, Alto raised additional net proceeds of approximately $44.4 million through the issuance and sale of its Series C convertible preferred stock.
Alto 100, 101 , 202 & 203
It went on to say, “Specifically, in the ALTO-100 Phase 2b trial we are enrolling 266 patients with MDD characterized by a cognitive biomarker, and we expect to report topline data from this trial in the second half of 2024. ALTO-101 is a novel small molecule phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor, or PDE4i, that we are developing for the treatment of CIAS. We licensed the exclusive rights to ALTO-101 from Sanofi. ALTO-101 has been studied across multiple Phase 1 trials, in which it showed human brain penetration and was observed to be well tolerated across therapeutically relevant dose ranges.”
“In the ALTO-300 Phase 2b trial we are enrolling 200 patients with MDD characterized by an electroencephalography, or EEG, biomarker, and we expect to report topline data from this trial in the first half of 2025. We estimate one or both of these two independent biomarkers are present in approximately three-quarters of the overall MDD population.”
The filing also stated, “In addition to our two most advanced programs, we expect to initiate Phase 2 proof-of-concept, or POC, trials evaluating ALTO-101 and ALTO-203 in the first half of 2024. ALTO-101 is being developed for patients with cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia, or CIAS, and ALTO-203 is being developed for patients with MDD and higher levels of anhedonia, or the lack of motivation or pleasure. We expect to report topline data from these trials in 2025 and the first half of 2025, respectively. We also plan to develop ALTO-202, our novel, oral N-methyl-D-aspartate, or NMDA, receptor antagonist, for the treatment of patients with MDD.”
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