IPOBoutique Brief – January 15, 2015 – #TBT: Dicerna & Ultragenyx

It’s Thursday, so why not indulge the ‘throw-back’ nature of the day and look at a pair of biotechs from January 2014 that started the Healthcare crazy in the IPO market: Dicerna Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: DRNA) and Ultragenyx Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: RARE). These were two of 102 biotech deals that came to market in 2014 but the significance of the two is that they indicated a strong appetite for healthcare companies.

Dicerna Pharmaceuticals came to market on January 30, 2014 and opened with a 100% premium above the offering price. The gains were just getting started on day one as ‘DRNA’ traded as high as 207% above the offering price. That $46.00 first day high turned out to be the high for the year. A freefall from March 20 – to April 17 sent the stock from $41.00 to around $16.00—a hair cut of around 61%. The biotech fell to a 52-week low of $8.00 in early November which was $7.00 below the offering price. What a roller coaster! Dicerna is now back above the offering price and closed for trading on Tuesday at $20.15.

Ultragenyx Pharmaceuticals came to market one day after Dicerna—January 31. ‘RARE’ represented back-to-back major gains in biotech IPOs as the deal priced at $21.00 and opened at $45.80—a 118% gainer at first trade. Within two months, Ultragenyx traded as high at $66.50 and held its gains in relative respect to ‘DRNA’. ‘RARE’ closed the day for trading on Tuesday at $53.99.

IPO Boutique senior managing partner Scott Sweet rated both of these IPOs a ‘4’ and the first-day gains proved to be strong. These two IPOs paved the way for strong biotechs later in the year such as Versartis (Nasdaq: VSAR), Kite Pharma (Nasdaq: KITE), Avalanche Biotechnologies (Nasdaq: AAVL) and Juno Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: JUNO).

IPO scheduled for January 28

Presbia plc (Nasdaq: LENS) updated terms for its IPO on Thursday morning. They are an ophthalmic device company that has developed and is currently marketing a proprietary optical lens implant for treating presbyopia, the age-related loss of the ability to focus on near objects. They plan to offer 4.2 million shares at a $11-$13 range.

First Postponement of 2015

The first postponement of 2015 goes to Sutherland Asset Management (NYSE:SLD). The real estate finance company acquires, originates, manages, services and finances primarily small-balance commercial loans, or SBC loans. J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley & FBR were the lead underwriters on the deal.