RNA therapy company AdarX Pharmaceuticals (ADRX.US) plans to go to the US to raise up to 372 million US dollars. Pharmaceutical giant ABBV.US (ABBV.US) has agreed to invest up to 100 million US dollars

The Zhitong Finance App learned that AdarX Pharmaceuticals, an RNA therapy company in the post-clinical development stage, plans to raise up to 371.9 million US dollars through an initial public offering (IPO) in the US. Based on the upper limit of the proposed issue price range, the company's market value after listing is expected to reach approximately US$1.74 billion.

According to Adarx's filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday, the San Diego-based biotech company plans to issue 21.875 million shares, each with an issue price range of $15 to $17. According to investor presentations, the IPO is expected to be priced on September 24, and the company plans to enter the NASDAQ global market under the stock code “ADRX”.

Adarx has a number of well-known biomedical and institutional investors behind it, including OrbiMed Advisors. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical giant ABBV.US (ABBV.US), which has formed a partnership with Adarx, plans to further become its shareholder. According to the prospectus, AbbVie has agreed to purchase AdarX shares through private placement according to the IPO price, with a maximum investment amount of no more than 100 million US dollars. After the transaction is completed, AbbVie is expected to hold approximately 4.9% of Adarx's shares.

AdarX mainly develops small interfering RNA (siRNA) drugs. The target indications cover various fields such as ophthalmology diseases, kidney disease, obesity, and Alzheimer's disease. By interfering with the expression of specific genes, siRNA therapy works on disease mechanisms at the genetic level without permanently altering the patient's genome or DNA. As RNA pharmaceutical technology continues to mature, this field has become one of the key directions for the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and biotech companies in recent years.

Currently, Adarx has a total of three candidate therapies in the clinical development stage, and two other projects are in the pre-clinical stage. However, like most biotech companies that are still in the R&D stage, Adarx is not yet profitable. According to the prospectus, in the six months ending June 30, the company recorded a net loss of US$48.4 million and cooperative revenue of US$2.9 million; net loss for the same period last year was US$33.6 million, and cooperative revenue was only US$208 million.

AbbVie not only plans to participate in this IPO, but has also established a sizable R&D partnership with Adarx before. In May 2025, Adarx reached a cooperation agreement with AbbVie and received an advance payment of US$335 million. According to the relevant cooperation arrangement, Adarx will also be eligible to receive billions of dollars in potential payments, including option-related expenses, R&D and commercialization milestone payments, and tiered royalties based on sales in the future.

AbbVie plans to further invest in AdarX during the IPO period, which also means that the relationship between the two parties will further extend from R&D cooperation to the equity level.

The shareholder lineup behind Adarx has also received market attention. According to the prospectus, after the IPO is completed, OrbiMed's shareholding ratio is expected to drop from the current 31% to 23%, but it will still be an important shareholder of the company. LAV's shareholding ratio is expected to drop from 16% to 12%; Adarx CEO Zhen Li's shareholding ratio will drop from 13% to 10%; and SR One's shareholding ratio will drop from 11% to 8.2%.

In addition, Adarx's previous financing has also attracted many large Wall Street investors. In 2023, Bain Capital Life Sciences and TCGX jointly led ADARX's $200 million Series C financing. Institutions such as BlackRock, Inbus, Marshall Wace, and Cushin Group joined as new investors at the time.

The IPO was led by J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Toronto Dominion Bank, UBS Group, and LifeSci Capital. If the final price is limited according to the issue price range of 17 US dollars per share, Adarx can raise about 371.9 million US dollars by issuing 21.875 million shares and obtain a listing valuation of about 1.74 billion US dollars. At the same time, AbbVie's simultaneous private equity investment of up to 100 million US dollars will further provide the company with R&D capital.