Axcella Health Files for $86 Million IPO

Early stage biotech, Axcella Health, has filed for an $86 million IPO. The initial filing documents do not provide the number of shares in the offering or the expected price range. The company has appiled to trade under the symbol, “AXLA.”Current Investors include Flagship Pioneering, Fidelity, and Nestle Health Science.

Axcella is developing drugs intended to address dysregulated metabolism across a broad spectrum of consumers and patients who currently have limited options. Their current candidates are generated from a proprietary, human-focused “AXA Development Platform” and harness the power of endogenous metabolic modulators, or EMMs. EMMs are a broad family of molecules that fundamentally impact and regulate human metabolism.

The company has five candidates in development. It's most advanced candidate in terms of development is AXA1665 – for hepatic encephalopathy. In March of 2019, Axcella had a pre-IND meeting with the FDA regarding AXA1665. The company anticipates initiating a clinical trial for AXA1665 in the second half of 2020.