Windward Bio prices $175M IPO to advance two TSLP-targeting immune drugs, lead in Phase 2/3
Swiss biotech Windward Bio sold 10.3 million shares at $17, and Sanofi added $50 million. Its lead drug WIN378, in Phase 2/3 for asthma, is designed for dosing as rarely as twice a year.
Swiss immune drug developer Windward Bio raised $175 million in its initial public offering on Thursday, according to biopharmadive.com. biopharmadive.com
biopharmadive.combiopharmadive.comOpen source ↗ The company, formed two years ago, sold about 10.3 million shares at $17 apiece, in line with the projections it set earlier in the week. Trading starts Friday under the ticker "WWB".
Sanofi, an earlier investor, bought another $50 million of shares in a concurrent private sale. Before the IPO, Windward had raised $365 million in venture funding. The offering is the 30th biotech IPO of the year.
WIN378 and the TSLP target
The lead program, WIN378, is an "ultra-long-acting" injectable drug that targets the inflammatory protein TSLP, as does Tezspire from AstraZeneca and Amgen, which generated nearly $2 billion combined last year. Tezspire is taken monthly. Windward said in a regulatory filing that WIN378 could be dosed as little as twice a year, and the company believes its design may yield improved potency.
WIN378 is being studied in severe, uncontrolled asthma and in moderate-to-severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Interim data from the mid-stage portion of a Phase 2/3 asthma trial showed the drug was well tolerated. Participants exhaled more air, a key measure of lung function, while a marker of airway inflammation and eosinophil counts decreased. biopharmadive.com
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The Phase 3 part of the asthma trial began in September, with results expected next year. A mid-stage COPD study started in June and should also produce data in 2027.
Second program and licensing
Windward is also developing WIN027, a bispecific antibody that targets TSLP and IL-13. The company expects Phase 1 results from healthy participants in the first half of 2027. It recently launched two Phase 2b studies of WIN027 in people with COPD, and a third trial in atopic dermatitis could begin next year.
TSLP is a crowded field: Windward competes with AbbVie, Pfizer, Upstream Bio and Generate Biomedicines, and some of them are working on multifaceted antibodies similar to WIN027. biopharmadive.com
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Both programs were licensed from Chinese drugmakers. WIN378 came from Kelun Biotech, which co-developed it with Harbour BioMed, and WIN027 came from a deal with Qyuns Therapeutics. Windward paid $70 million up front in cash and equity and may owe another $1.6 billion contingent on R&D and sales milestones.
This year is the busiest for drugmaker IPOs since 2021, with more than $8 billion raised, according to BioPharma Dive data. Windward is the ninth immune drug developer to price an IPO in 2026, a pace above every year since 2018.
