Strong Wall Street Debut Shows Potential Of Indian Billionaire-Backed Bicara’s Cancer Drugs

Shares of Bicara Therapeutics—a biopharmaceutical company backed by Indian billionaire Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw—surged about 42% from its IPO price in its first week of trading on Nasdaq as investors on Wall Street gave the cancer drug developer a strong vote of confidence.

The stock jumped 30% on its first trading on September 13 and continued to rally last week to close at $25.61 on Friday, giving Bicara a market capitalization of $1.3 billion. The Boston-based company raised $362 million from its IPO, the size of which was increased twice due to overwhelming investor demand.

“I am thrilled that an innovation conceptualized and pre-clinically developed in our labs in Bangalore has translated into promising clinical data and received such a strong endorsement from investors of its potential to be a key and perhaps a front line therapy in treating head and neck cancers,” Mazumdar-Shaw, non-executive director of Bicara, told Forbes Asia by email.

With a real-time net worth of $3.6 billion, Mazumdar-Shaw is one India’s richest self-made women. She is the founder and managing director of India-listed biopharma company Biocon, a key shareholder of Bicara. “Saving lives through innovative science has been our driving mission at Biocon and Bicara has certainly added value to this mission,” Mazumdar-Shaw said.

Bicara—which is run by Mazumdar-Shaw’s niece, Claire Mazumdar, as CEO—will use the proceeds from IPO further develop ficerafusp alfa (previously called BCA101), a bifunctional antibody to treat head and neck cancer, both for monotherapy and in combination with U.S. Foood and Drug Administration-approved pembrolizumab marketed as Keytruda, an immunotherapy drug made by New Jersey-based Merck.

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Keytruda generated sales of $25 billion in 2023, according to Merck.

While Bicara remains in the red, posting a wider net loss of $29.5 million in the first six months of the year, compared with $16.7 million the year before, it has the backing of several marquee investors.

The company’s series C funding round in December secured $165 million from investors such as U.S.-based private equity firm TPG and healthcare hedge fund Braidwell. That latest fundraise came nine months after Bicara had garnered $108 million in a series B funding round, co-led by Red Tree Venture Capital and RA Capital Management. Other backers include Indian tech billionaire Azim Premji’s private equity firm, Premji Invest and Fidelity International’s investment arm, Eight Roads.