ADARx IPO: A developer of treatments for rare diseases and an AbbVie partner has gone public

Pre-market trading in the shares of ADARx Pharmaceuticals, a small developer of treatments for rare diseases, has begun on the Freedom client trading platform. Among the company’s partners is pharmaceutical giant AbbVie, which has already invested $335 million in its research and development and has agreed to purchase up to $100 million worth of shares. Later on September 25, ADARx shares will begin trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ADRX.

Biotechnology company ADARx raised $446.3 million in an expanded IPO on the Nasdaq. It sold 26.25 million shares at $17 each—at the upper end of the previously announced price range ($15–17). At the same time, as part of a private placement, the American biopharmaceutical company AbbVie agreed to purchase shares of the small-cap biotech company for up to $100 million.

Based on the number of shares outstanding, ADARx’s market capitalization totaled $1.8 billion, according to Bloomberg.

The underwriters for the offering were J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, TD Cowen, UBS Investment Bank, and LifeSci Capital. They received a 30-day option from the company to purchase up to 3.9 million of its shares.

The company plans to allocate most of the proceeds from the transaction toward completing clinical trials of its lead drug candidate, onvuzosiran, according to ADARx’s IPO prospectus. This drug is intended to treat a rare genetic disorder—hereditary angioedema. The condition is characterized by sudden episodes of swelling, which can be life-threatening.

ADARx was founded in 2019 by Zhen Li, who had previously worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 20 years. In an interview with BioSpace, she recalled that her family of engineers wanted their daughter to follow in their footsteps, but she chose science. “I always felt that was my biggest act of rebellion,” she said.

Li earned her Ph.D. in chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard, took a job at the American company Merck & Co., and then moved to the pharmaceutical company Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, which uses roughly the same technology as ADARx in the development of its drugs. This technology is called siRNA therapy (or, simply, RNA therapy); its goal is to selectively destroy the RNA—the messenger strand of a specific gene—without affecting the DNA itself. This temporarily blocks the synthesis of the pathological protein. ADARx’s portfolio currently includes five experimental drugs in various therapeutic areas: three of them, including onvuzosiran, are in clinical trials, while the other two have not yet reached the human testing stage.

The company does not yet generate revenue from its core business and is financed through investor funding. Among its early investors was the specialized fund OrbiMed; subsequent investors included SR One Management—a venture capital firm spun off from pharmaceutical giant GSK—as well as Sirona Capital, Brain Capital, and BlackRock. In total, ADARx has raised approximately $350 million over the course of four funding rounds.

In 2025, ADARx entered into an agreement with AbbVie to jointly develop new drugs. As part of this deal, the pharmaceutical giant has already paid the company an upfront payment of $335 million and could pay an additional $7.8 billion if the development efforts prove successful. This agreement, as well as its potential value, demonstrates a major player’s confidence in the startup’s RNA platform, which reduces risks for retail investors, according to IPO expert Donovan Jones (as he writes in a column on the Seeking Alpha portal).

The main risk for the company is the drug’s rejection or poor trial results, which could significantly affect the stock price in the future, as well as market competition, according to Freedom analyst Alem Bektemirov. Taking these risks into account and comparing the stock to its peers, Freedom has set a price target of $18.1 for ADARx shares, which implies a 6.5% upside from the offering price.

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Freedom clients will be able to trade ADARx Pharmaceuticals shares before the main trading session opens. Trading will begin in an early pre-market session 2–3 hours before the U.S. markets open (from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Astana time). To participate, click on the ADRX ticker.