Moderna is sliding in its Wall Street debut after the biggest IPO in biotech history

Lydia Ramsey

Dec 7, 2018, 22:18 IST

Moderna is sliding in its Wall Street debut after the biggest IPO in biotech history

CNBC screenshot

Moderna Therapeutics CEO Stephane Bancel

Moderna Therapeutics started trading Friday in its intial public offering under the ticker "MRNA."
It raised more than $600 million in the biggest IPO in biotech history, selling shares at $23 each.
Moderna's stock declined in its trading debut on Friday.
Moderna is developing medical treatments based on messenger RNA, and the company is still in the early days of human trials for its treatments.

Moderna Therapeutics just started trading, after the biggest initial public offering in biotech history.

The stock slid 5.7 percent to $21.65 in its trading debut on Friday, after pricing at $23 late on Thursday night.

Moderna sold more than 26 million shares late Thursday, raising $604 million, a biotech record. The company trades under the ticker "MRNA."

Moderna is developing medical treatments based on messenger RNA, and the company is still in the early days of human trials for its treatments, which include cancer treatments as well as a vaccine for cytomegalovirus, or CMV.

It's been a big year for biotech IPOs. In October, the early-stage cancer biotech Allogene became the then-biggest biotech IPO ever. It raised $324 million in an IPO that valued the company at more than $2 billion.

Excluding Moderna, there have been 56 biotech IPOs that have raised a total $5.5 billion in 2018, according to Renaissance Capital. It's the highest total since 2014, when there were 71 biotech IPOs that raised a combined $5.2 billion.

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan were the joint lead bookrunners on the deal.