Newly Public Rubius Investing $155m to Renovate Rhode Island Plant

Rubius Therapeutics will use some of the US$241 million (€207 million) raised in its initial public offering (IPO) to buy and refurbish a manufacturing facility.

The biotech firm begins trading on Nasdaq Global Select Market today (July 18) after raising $241 million from the public offering of 10,483,000 shares of common stock.

According to the firm’s Form S-1, filed with the SEC, some of the proceeds will be used to “purchase, renovate and customize the manufacturing facility for which we have entered into a letter of intent to purchase.”

The prospectus refers to a facility in Smithfield, Rhode Island the firm selected late last month. Rhode Island state governor Gina Raimondo announced the firm pledged to invest up to $155 million over a five-year period for the 135,000 square-foot manufacturing plant

A Rubius spokesperson told BioProcess Insider the specific building has not been disclosed but the firm has “signed a LOI [letter of intent] with the current owner and are negotiating acquisition terms,” it was confirmed.

“We will manufacture Red Cell Therapeutics, a new kind of cellular medicine to potentially treat rare enzymatic diseases, cancer and autoimmune diseases.”

The company’s proprietary Red Cell Therapeutic – or RTC – programs are based on human red blood cells and express biotherapeutic proteins within or on the surface of the cell. Rubius says this results in highly potent, well tolerated and ready-to-use cellular medicines for the potential treatment of a range of diseases.

The company has 12 programs in its preclinical pipeline, a mix of potential rare disease therapies to oncology and autoimmune candidates.