Harvard Apparatus Regenerative Technology Inc., a subsidiary of Harvard Bioscience Inc. (NASDAQ: HBIO), intends to seek around $20 million in its IPO.
The company is working on creating “bioreactor” units that can be used to grow organs outside of the body. Obviously, that has enormous implications for patients who are on donor wait-lists.
Harvard Bioscience will own 80 percent of the shares following its IPO, with plans of eventually handing over the entire business to its stockholders.
From the Boston Herald:
“We believe our technology could enable surgeons to cure nearly all primary trachea cancers,” the company said in the filing. “Our products address the critical challenges to trachea transplant: the shortage of suitable donor tracheas and the risk and expense of lifelong anti-rejection drug therapy.”
Harvard Apparatus was incorporated in May of this year. The company has already tested what it calls a “synthetic scaffold,” which can develop a replacement trachea.
The IPO mentions that this technology has seen success in six surgeries involving human airway transplants. FDA approval for trachea transplant products is expected by 2017, which would allow the company to enter a market estimated to be worth in excess of $300 million per year.
The company, which filed on December 11, will list under the symbol “HART”.
