Accelerating Growth Through Listing: How Molecular Partners’ IPO Put It on the Path to Success

Since the 2014 IPO, Molecular Partners has progressed from the first steps in clinical development, through clinical validation and to bringing innovative new treatments to patients. It has developed a wider range of therapeutics and expanded with a series of successful strategic partnerships. SIX Swiss Exchange caught up with Patrick Amstutz, CEO at Molecular Partners, to talk about how the company has thrived since going public.

As with many IPOs, the decision to go public was self-explanatory: to raise capital, drive international growth and boost visibility, all of which play to Switzerland’s core strengths.

“We selected the SIX Swiss Exchange as our listing venue for a number of reasons. As a Swiss start-up, as we were then, it was a logical choice to stick with the home market. Furthermore,  SIX Swiss Exchange has a strong reputation, and is a stable, well-established and well-regulated Exchange. Listing in Switzerland gave us access to a good-sized local investor pool, which has an excellent understanding about how biotech and healthcare companies work, and it also meant we could seamlessly target global investors  – both retail and institutional,” said Amstutz.

Unlike on other major Exchanges, Amstutz said businesses like Molecular Partners do not get lost amongst the bigger companies on SIX Swiss Exchange -  yet they still get the full liquidity benefits.

Since listing, Molecular Partners has transformed itself from being an up and coming biotech company into a mature and global industry leader.

This has partly been enabled by the better visibility that comes with being publicly traded, a point made by Amstutz. 

“Being listed enhanced our visibility and access to capital, which ultimately expedited our growth and development. This access to capital has been an accelerant for innovation, helped us push products through clinical development and attract top talent.  It also provided us with financial stability during a period of unprecedented volatility. The higher profile pushed us to have a more clearly defined strategic approach and better discipline, and we have benefited from the input and support of our shareholders,” said Amstutz.

Similar to many IPOs, being listed allowed early stage private investors in Molecular  Partners, e.g. venture capital and private equity, to exit their investments, paving the way for the company to attract fresh, new capital. 

“A lot of our early VC investors were able to exit , and this allowed us to bring in new investors for the next chapter, where we are focusing more on the clinical development of our drugs,” said Amstutz.

The elevated brand recognition has also supported Molecular Partners with its international expansion plans. In 2021, Molecular Partners announced a $63.8 million IPO of American Depository Receipts (ADRs) on Nasdaq, further expanding its footprint in the US. In total, including the IPO on SIX Swiss Exchange, subsequent ADR listing on Nasdaq, and other additional offerings, Molecular Partners has raised circa CHF 250 million on the capital markets.

The list of Molecular Partners’ accomplishments since going public is extensive.

“Over the last 10 plus years since our listing, the company has evolved dramatically, yet we always maintained a consistent vision: to address significant, unmet medical needs with our DARPin drug candidates and offering tangible solutions for patients,” said Amstutz.

In 2014, Molecular Partners had two candidates in clinic development. Since then, it has developed a further six clinical-stage DARPin therapeutic candidates for patients, with more on the way. “We have created proprietary DARPin platforms enabling novel, differentiated DARPin therapeutics for difficult to treat cancers,” noted Amstutz.

Molecular Partners’ success has also been underpinned by collaborations with leading pharma companies.

“We are – and always have been – looking to expand and enhance our portfolio through partnerships. We worked closely with Allergan – now Abbvie – in ophthalmology, Amgen in immuno-oncology, and Novartis in virology during the Covid-19 pandemic. The partnerships around Abicipar (Allergan) and Ensovibep (Novartis) have been critical to our development as they have provided important clinical drug development and manufacturing learnings, in addition to representing breakthroughs for DARPin therapeutics in the clinic for patients,” said Amstutz.

“Now through our strategic collaboration with Orano Med, we have the potential to become a leader in radiopharmaceuticals, with a pipeline of up to ten targeted alpha therapies and covering the full value chain of radiopharmaceuticals with complementary technologies and capabilities.” 

In total, Molecular Partners has received CHF 450 million in payments from these partnerships.

With the European IPO market incrementally recovering, a new crop of biotech companies are tentatively exploring their listing options.

Amstutz highlighted that going public is an excellent opportunity for burgeoning companies to realise their growth potential, but stresses it needs to be done in the right way, and at the right time. “Whilst listing does open up new doors and sources of capital, it is vital firms do not list too early,” he concluded.