Verastem Joins The Public Markets With A Strong IPO

27 Jan 2012

• By Lisa LaMotta

Verastem IPO’d at $10 per share on Jan. 26, despite having only preclinical assets in its pipeline. Strong interest from large companies for cancer stem cell therapies helped contribute to the price.

Verastem Inc. joined the mass of public biotechs listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange on Jan. 27 after successfully raising $55 million in an initial public offering the previous day. The biotech, which develops cancer therapies based on stem cell technology, was able to garner significant interest from investors despite the recently poor environment of the public markets.

The company sold 5.5 million shares at a price of $10 apiece, well over the 4.5 million shares at $9...