MapLight Therapeutics on Monday advanced plans to go public with the help of a little-used regulatory workaround that would allow it to price a new stock offering during a federal government shutdown.
The biotechnology company, which is developing drugs for neurological diseases, said in a statement that it plans to sell 14,750,000 shares at $17 apiece in a coming IPO. A current investor has agreed to buy $40 million worth of shares, and MapLight also intends to raise another $8 million via a private deal with Goldman Sachs.
Notably, MapLight is setting terms at a time when the Securities and Exchange Commission is operating at a significantly reduced capacity. The agency isn’t currently declaring IPO registration statements effective, creating an unusual obstacle for companies seeking access to the public markets.
MapLight is relying on a provision in the Securities Act that automatically makes effective a registration statement 20 days after it files an amended statement. In a federal filing, the biotech warned it could receive a so-called stop order from the SEC, which would block the company from the public sale of shares.
If the government shutdown ends and the SEC resumes full operations before Oct. 26, when MapLight is scheduled to price, the company said it might change its decision to use this legal provision.
MapLight has a schizophrenia drug in a mid-stage testing that it’s positioning as a competitor to Bristol Myers Squibb’s Cobenfy. The drug goes after the same targets: a pair of “muscarinic receptors,” proteins which control the release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine.
MapLight suspects its drug can be dosed more conveniently, at once or twice per day, compared to twice-daily Cobenfy, which also requires a multiday titration period. The biotech previously said its medicine could also mitigate some of the side effects associated with schizophrenia therapies, and not require patients to fast for a short period before dosing. Like Bristol Myers, MapLight is also evaluating its drug in Alzheimer’s psychosis.
The schizophrenia trial is expected to read out in 2026, while results from the Alzheimer's psychosis study are expected in 2027.
MapLight could pull in an estimated $251 million in its IPO. That would make it the third-largest public market debut of a biotech this year, and the second major offering in a row for a CNS drug developer. Last month, LB Pharmaceuticals priced a $285 million offering to fund its experimental schizophrenia drug.
Ben Fidler contributed reporting.
