China's Structure Therapeutics soars on US debut

The company has secured USD 198m in private funding since its inception. Its backers include Sequoia Capital China, Qiming Venture Partners, Hillhouse Capital, Eight Roads Ventures, F-Prime Capital Partners, BVF Partners, and Deep Track Capital.

Structure Therapeutics sold 10.74m American Depository Shares (ADS), excluding the overallotment option, for USD 15.00 apiece, which represents the top-end of the indicative range, according to a statement. It initially sought to sell 8.95m shares. The stock reached as high as USD 27.46 during trading on February 3 before closing at USD 26.00, a 73% premium to the IPO price.

The company was founded in 2017 by Raymond Stevens and Schrödinger, an artificial intelligence-driven drug discovery business that also counts Qiming as an investor. It leverages structure-based drug discovery and computational chemistry to create small-molecule drugs administered orally.

Stevens is credited with leading the lab that solved the first structure of human G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that sit on the surface of cells. They feature in non-oncology drugs used to treat diseases in nearly every major organ system – approximately one in every three marketed medicines targets GPCR-associated pathways, according to a prospectus.

GPCRs appeal to drug developers because they interact with a diverse set of signalling molecules and are involved in many physiological and pathological processes. This facilitates drug binding. Structure Therapeutics claims to have built a platform that addresses the challenges of GPCRs and develops novel drugs for targets where traditional discovery methods have fallen short.

The company’s most advanced treatment is GSBR-1290, which targets type-two diabetes and obesity. A first round of phase-one clinical trials was conducted last year and an investigational new drug (IND) application has been submitted to US regulators. There are other small molecule candidates that focus on pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases.

Structure Therapeutics has a dedicated subsidiary for pipeline development and pursuing drug discovery partnerships called Basecamp Bio. It uses techniques such as cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM), which is applied to samples cooled to cryogenic temperatures, machine learning, and X-ray crystallography as the basis for molecular designs.

The company has yet to generate any revenue. Operating costs rose from USD 15.9m in 2020 to USD 37.7m in 2021, largely reflecting a jump in R&D costs. Over the same period, its net loss widened from USD 15.9m to USD 38m.

Structure Therapeutics received USD 32m in Series A funding in April 2019 from Eight Roads, F-Prime, Sequoia, and Qiming. All four re-upped in a USD 26m extension in March of the following year, where they were joined by Hillhouse Capital, which contributed USD 9.9m.

A Series B of USD 133m closed across several tranches between July 2021 and April 2022. BVF and Deep Track put in USD 30m and USD 19.9m, respectively, while all existing investors re-upped.

Sequoia is the largest shareholder with 7.65%, followed by BVF with 7.1%, Eight Roads with 6.2%, Hillhouse with 5.99%, F-Prime with 5.57%, and Qiming and Deep Track with 4.73% apiece.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• North America
• Healthcare
• IPO
• China
• USA
• Pharmaceuticals
• Qiming Venture Partners
• Sequoia Capital
• Eight Roads
• Fidelity
• Hillhouse Capital Management