The Oxford biotech start-up behind the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine is preparing the ground for an initial public offering in New York.
Vaccitech is said to have submitted confidential filings for a planned listing in the United States, eschewing the London stock market despite ministerial efforts to bolster its reputation as “one of the best places in the world” to float. The company could price the offering within weeks, according to reports.
Vaccitech declined to comment. The company, which was spun out of Oxford University and incorporated in 2016, was co-founded by Sarah Gilbert, the professor of vaccinology who has led Oxford’s vaccine project.
She and Adrian Hill, Vaccitech’s co-founder and another Oxford professor, each owned stakes of more than 5 per cent in the company before its latest funding round, according to disclosures filed with Companies House.
The Oxford vaccine is licensed to AstraZeneca, the Anglo-Swedish FTSE 100 drugs group, through Oxford University Innovation, which helps the institution to commercialise intellectual property. AstraZeneca set up a manufacturing consortium and is distributing it around the world.
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Bill Enright, formerly of Altimmune, a Nasdaq-listed biotech company, serves as chief executive at Vaccitech, while Robin Wright, former chief financial officer of Pharming Group in the Netherlands, is the company’s chairman.
Last month Vaccitech raised $168 million from investors in a series B funding round said to have valued the company at about £425 million. It was led by M&G Investment Management and involved Tencent, the Chinese technology group, and Gilead Sciences, the US biotech company. The company pledged to use the funds to support early-stage clinical trials, including treatments for patients with chronic hepatitis and prostate cancer.
Oxford University also has a significant investment in Vaccitech and Enright is a shareholder. Its plan to float in New York were first reported by the Financial Times.
Biotech stocks have been in demand over the past year, with shares in Moderna, the American firm which developed its own Covid-19 vaccine, and BioNTech, which worked with Pfizer to do the same, up sharply.
