Frequency Therapeutics registers $100m IPO

Frequency Therapeutics has registered an initial public offering of common stock worth $100 million.

Woburn, Mass.-based Frequency Therapeutics did not disclose the number of shares it seeks to sell or the price range of the offered units. The company applied to the Securities and Exchange Commission have its common stock listed on The Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “FREQ.”

J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Cowen and Mizuho Securities are expected to deliver the shares for the offering, according to the SEC filing.

Frequency Therapeutics said it intends to use the funds to advance the clinical development of FX-322, the hearing loss drug it’s developing, as well as to develop other product candidates in its progenitor cell activation (PCA) platform. The rest of the cash will go toward working capital and other general corporate purposes, the company said. Frequency Therapeutics did not disclose how it would divide the funds for product development.

FX-322 is designed to stimulate the regrowth of sensory hair cells to treat chronic noise-induced hearing loss. Frequency’s technology is based on activating progenitor cells – mature stem cells that can proliferate into different types of cells. The compound is injected into the middle ear in a slow-release gel.

In July, Frequency Therapeutics raised $62 million in Series C funding, earmarked for the FX-322’s development, as well as other technology in the PCA platform. Combined with a $42 million Series B round in January and another $32 million from Series A funding in 2017, the company said it had raised $147 million by late July.