Axiom Biosciences has announced plans to pursue an initial public offering on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKEX).  

The company says it believes the proposed listing would position it as the first US biotechnology company to pursue a primary listing in Hong Kong, reflecting a “broader shift in where the world’s most ambitious science finds the ecosystem to thrive”. 

For decades, the path for a US biotechnology company ran through private venture rounds and, eventually, a listing on Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange. Axiom is charting a different course, a primary listing in a market with deep biotechnology expertise, offering direct proximity to the company’s Asian partners. 

The company intends to pursue a secondary US listing in time, building its public profile from Asia outward. 

“Some of the most important science in the world is being built in the United States, but the way it gets funded hasn’t kept pace,” said Dr Remo Moomiaie-Qajar, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Axiom Biosciences. “We intend to be the first US biotech to list in Hong Kong because that is where deep biotechnology capital and many of our own clinical partners increasingly are. This is about building Axiom as a global company from the start and about opening a path that other American innovators can follow.” 

Axiom’s lead regenerative therapy, developed with South Korea-based Medinno, is being studied in newborns with severe intraventricular haemorrhage and hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy, and has received two US FDA Rare Pediatric Disease Designations.  

The company’s underlying platform has been supported by eight competitive research grants from US federal agencies and the State of California, and Axiom is planning an expansion of the platform with a clinical trial in adult ischaemic stroke.