Attovia Therapeutics filed an S-1 with the SEC this week to fund a challenger to Sanofi and Regeneron’s Dupixent and Galderma’s Nemluvio. No price range or share count is disclosed yet, so there’s no deal value to size up. What’s clear is the target: a franchise Galderma just proved is worth far more than anyone thought.
Galderma won FDA approval for Nemluvio in December 2024 and has since doubled its peak sales forecast to more than $4 billion, up from the prior above-$2 billion guidance, after a stronger-than-expected launch. That repricing is the whole investment thesis for Attovia’s lead asset, ATTO-1310, a fusion protein that blocks IL-31 by targeting the ligand directly rather than the receptor, the way Nemluvio does.
What public investors actually get: an early asset. ATTO-1310 has only pooled phase 1b data, 65% of patients hit the itch-responder bar at Week 4 versus zero on placebo, with phase 2 trials in chronic pruritus and atopic dermatitis not starting until the first half of 2027. Attovia’s two other pipeline candidates haven’t dosed a single patient.
That’s the real read here. Kalohexis and Scribe Therapeutics also filed to go public on phase 1-stage programs in recent weeks, a signal that the IPO window has widened enough for banks to underwrite science, not just late-stage data. Attovia’s already raised $255.8 million through Series A, B and C rounds from Deep Track Capital, Frazier Life Sciences, Goldman Sachs Alternatives and venBio, leaving $126.8 million in the bank as of March. The IPO isn’t a rescue. It’s a bet that public money will pay a premium for a shot at unseating a $4 billion drug before the phase 2 data even reads out.
— Diana Kowalski