Aspen Neuroscience, a San Diego biotech developing a therapy to replace brain cells lost to Parkinson’s disease, announced plans Monday for an initial public offering.
The company has been developing regenerative therapies since 2018. Its lead candidate, sasineprocel, is an experimental treatment that takes a patient’s own skin cells, reprograms them into stem cells and develops them into neuron precursors. Those cells are then transplanted into the brain to replace lost dopamine-producing neurons.
Parkinson’s is a progressive disease, in which dopamine-producing brain cells gradually die. Aspen’s treatment aims to regenerate these dying brain cells.
Like a single aspen tree that eventually grows into a grove, the therapy aims to regrow neurons from the patient’s own cells — hence the name of the company.
Aspen has an ongoing Phase 1/2a trial, and it’s planning a Phase 3 trial in the second half of 2027, it said in a press release.
The company plans to raise $150 million by offering 9.4 million shares at $15 to $17 each. At the midpoint of that range, the company would have a fully diluted market value of $494 million. The money would help fund development of sasineprocel.
Parkinson’s is currently recognized as one of the most common neurological conditions, according to the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. It affects about 1.5 million people in the U.S., the school says.
Parkinson’s has no cure. Sasineprocel is still being tested, and it’s too early to know how well it works.