Another pharma-born biotech is going public

Back in 2017, AstraZeneca gazed upon its pipeline and saw six molecules that did not fit with its strategy. And thus Viela Bio was born, a biotech startup led by ex-AstraZeneca executives with the goal of turning those six molecules into products.

Now Viela wants to raise $150 million in an IPO. The company’s most advanced treatment, for a rare autoimmune disease, is already under FDA review, and it has two more in early clinical development.

Viela’s Wall Street debut would mark another public test case for the idea that drugs that found little quarter inside a major pharma company can be made valuable by smaller spinout. Pfizer did the same thing in 2017 when it created SpringWorks Therapeutics to develop a handful of drugs sitting idly in its pipeline, and now that company is out to raise $115 million in an IPO.