Biotechnology specialistBIOLIFE4Dhas filed for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) with theUS Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC).
Though BIOLIFE4D has yet to price its IPO, it has revealed that it aims to raise $17.5 million via the move, which will see a significant amount of its shares become publicly traded. Using any cash raised, the firm says that it intends to expand its R&D operations, as a means of “commercializing” the mini 3D bioprinted heart it has been working on for at least four years.
BIOLIFE4D’s bioprinting ambitions
According to BIOLIFE4D, there are over 100,000 people on the organ transplant waiting list in the US alone, and many more are in need but don’t qualify for transplantation. To make matters worse, the firm says these patients also face a myriad of other challenges, not only when it comes to cost, but the risk of potential complications and donor organ rejection.
考虑到这一点，Biolife4D提出了一种新型手段，可以从患者自己的细胞中产生心脏组织，这有望大大减少他们必须等待器官移植的时间。使用对患者心脏的MRI扫描，该公司的方法看到它通过3D建模软件创建了精确的数字复制品。然后，使用定制的生物墨水将该模型转变为可移植的组织，其中包含从血液样本中采集的患者干细胞以及未公开的营养素。
Once printed, the resulting structure is later moved into a bioreactor, in which its cells can begin self-organizing and fusing into living tissues, that ultimately start ‘beating’ in unison. Theoretically at least, BIOLIFE4D says this process is capable of producing fully-formed hearts that are a “perfect genetic match for the patient,” freeing them from the risk of rejection that “plagues conventional methods.”
However, the company’s R&D is understood to remain at a pre-clinical stage, meaning that its technology is still a considerable way away from commercializing as desired. That being said, BIOLIFE4D has passed several scientific milestones since announcing the creation of itsfirst 3D bioprinted heart tissuesin 2018, which should provide reason for optimism to investors in its potential upcoming IPO.
The next year, the firm reported that it hadsuccessfully bioprinted a mini-heart据说能够模仿真正器官的某些功能。在其网站上，Biolife4D还拥有开发出干细胞衍生的二尖瓣和主动脉瓣膜，旨在替代患者受损的瓣膜，并进行涉及使用凝块预防的血液稀释剂过时的治疗方法。
Analyzing BIOLIFE4D’s financials
Biolife4D的IPO计划已详细介绍S-1 registration statementit submitted to the SEC last week. In what is a lengthy document, the firm outlines how it would spend any funding raised from the move, pledging to spend $7.2 million on lab gear and materials, as well as around $1.3 million on G&A, and $1.1 million on working capital loan repayments.
该声明还显示，到目前为止，该公司尚未产生任何收入来资助其活动，因此去年的总支出为180万美元，导致运营损失相同。在这笔支出中，G＆A支出绑架了不到994,000美元，而研发则扣除了780,000美元，其中约8,000美元是由于折旧和摊销。
In the past, BIOLIFE4D has actually already turned to selling common stock, as a means of bankrolling its ongoing 3D bioprinting research efforts. Back in early-2018, the firmfiled for a $50 million IPO与SEC一起，尽管是条例A+规则。从那时起，据信这位生物打印专家从投资者那里筹集了680万美元，其中214万美元来自2020年和2021年的股票销售额。
While offerings launched under Regulation A+ tend to be dubbed ‘mini-IPOs,’ as they’re subject to a number of limitations, the shortfall between BIOLIFE4D’s projections and the funding it has attracted raises questions about its latest IPO.
该公司通过其声明说，3D生物打印已达到成熟度，从而“可以通过优化而不是发明来创建商业可行的生物印刷解决方案”。但是，Biolife4D还承认，投资其证券“涉及高风险”，因为它的成功取决于其3D打印可行的人心的能力，并且“以前从未成功地完成”。
Bioprinting’s growing investor appeal
The technology behind 3D bioprinting may still be at an early stage of development, but that hasn’t stopped investors continuing to back its developers, based on its promise to address the wider transplant market. Just last month,Regemat 3D raised over €500,000in funding, capital it has already earmarked for R&D.
同时，在澳大利亚Inventia Life Science has attracted $25 million (USD)in investment, which it plans to put towards the commercialization of itsRASTRUM 3D bioprinter. With further R&D, the company believes its platform could be used to address a biomedical R&D and drug discovery market worth more than $40 billion.
In the mainstream 3D printing sector,3D系统has also continued to pour investment into itsPrint to Perfusion 3D bioprintingactivities. Through itsacquisition of Volumetric Biotechnologies去年，在一项可能价值高达4亿美元的交易中，该公司最终旨在扩大该领域的研究并开发一系列生物打印器官。
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Featured image shows a rendering of the printhead of BIOLIFE4D’s 3D bioprinting platform. Image via BIOLIFE4D.
