Tocagen has filed an amended S-1 form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in relation to its initial public offering (IPO). The company expects to price its 7.25 million shares in the range of $10 to $12 per share, with an overallotment option for an additional 1.0875 million shares. At the maximum price, the entire offering is valued up to $100.05 million. The company intends to list its stock on the Nasdaq under the symbol TOCA.

The underwriters for the offering are Leerink Partners, Evercore ISI and Stifel.

This is a clinical-stage, cancer-selective gene therapy company focused on developing first-in-class, broadly-applicable product candidates designed to activate a patient’s immune system against their own cancer from within.

Tocagen’s cancer-selective gene therapy platform is built on retroviral replicating vectors (RRVs), which are designed to selectively deliver therapeutic genes into the DNA of cancer cells. Its gene therapy approach is designed to fight cancer through immunotherapeutic mechanisms of action without the autoimmune toxicities commonly experienced with other immunotherapies.

The firm’s lead product candidate, Toca 511 & Toca FC, were initially developed for the treatment of recurrent high grade glioma (HGG), a brain cancer with limited treatment options, low survival rates and, therefore, a significant unmet medical need. Toca 511 is an investigational injectable RRV and Toca FC is an investigational small molecule drug, which have been designed to be used together.

In November 2015, Tocagen initiated the Phase 2 portion of a randomized, controlled Phase 2/3 clinical trial of Toca 511 & Toca FC in patients with recurrent HGG, which is designed to serve as a potential registrational trial. The company completed enrollment of the Phase 2 portion with 187 patients in February 2017 and plan to report top-line results in the first half of 2018. In February 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Toca 511 & Toca FC Breakthrough Therapy Designation for the treatment of patients with recurrent HGG.

Tocagen intends to use the net proceeds from this offering to further fund and develop its pipeline, with the remainder going toward working capital and general corporate purposes.

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