Kardigan, a clinical-stage precision therapeutics company focusing on cardiovascular diseases without approved treatments, announced the pricing of its initial public offering on Wednesday evening, June 17, 2026. The company offered 25,000,000 shares of common stock at $16 per share, generating gross proceeds of $400 million. This successful IPO made Kardigan the fourth drug startup in 2026 to raise at least $400 million, a total rarely achieved since 2021, and boosted the median amount raised by biotech companies in 2026 to almost $302 million.
The New Jersey-based biotech, which trades on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol "KARD," was created by former executives of MyoKardia, a company acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb for $13 billion. Kardigan secured nearly $570 million in private funding prior to the IPO, including a $300 million Series A and a $254 million Series B round, bringing its total capital raised to almost $1 billion.
Kardigan's pipeline includes three clinical-stage assets, all licensed from other pharmaceutical companies. Its lead drug, danicamtiv, originally discovered by MyoKardia, was licensed from Bristol Myers in 2024 and is in late-stage testing for a genetically driven dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition with no approved treatments. Initial Phase 2b/3 trial data for danicamtiv are anticipated in the first half of 2027. The company also secured rights to tonlamarsen, an antisense oligonucleotide from Ionis Pharmaceuticals, which is being evaluated for acute severe hypertension, with Phase 2 data expected in 2027.
The IPO was led by J.P. Morgan and Jefferies as joint book-runners, with Leerink Partners and T.D. Cowen also serving as joint book-runners. At pricing, Kardigan's market capitalization was $1.43 billion. Principal shareholders before the IPO included ARCH Venture Partners and HRTG Partners, each holding a 22.4% stake, and Perceptive Advisors with 12.7%. After the IPO, their stakes adjusted to 16.5%, 16.6%, and 9.3% respectively. For the 12 months ending March 31, 2026, Kardigan reported a net loss of $229.99 million on no revenue.
