Biotechnology company Sionna Therapeutics (SION.US) has filed for an IPO on the US stock market to raise a planned $100 million.

Biotechnology company Sionna Therapeutics, which is developing a new therapy for cystic fibrosis, submitted its initial public offering application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last Friday, aiming to raise up to $100 million in funding. Sionna is working on a treatment to normalize the function of Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) protein as a therapy for CF patients. The company's goal is to restore CFTR function as much as possible by directly stabilizing the nucleotide binding domain 1 (NBD1) of CFTR, in contrast to the CFTR modulator therapies currently marketed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX.US). Currently, Vertex sells all five approved CFTR modulators, with projected sales of about $10 billion by 2023. Sionna emphasizes that their Chief Medical Officer previously served as Vice President of Cystic Fibrosis at Vertex. Currently, Sionna is conducting phase 1 trials for its two main NBD1 stabilizer candidate drugs, with phase 2a trials expected to start in the second half of 2025. The company is also conducting phase 1 and 2 trials of a range of complimentary CFTR modulators, some of which are licensed by AbbVie. Established in 2019, Sionna plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker SION. Sionna Therapeutics submitted its application confidentially on September 12, 2024. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., TD Cowen, Stifel, and Guggenheim Securities are the joint book-running managers for this transaction. The company did not disclose the pricing terms.