Eli Lilly-Backed Biotech TRex Dips 3.6% After $116.7 Million IPO

TRex Bio Inc. shares slipped 3.6% in the firm’s trading debut, after the biotech raised $116.7 million in a US initial public offering.

The company’s shares opened at $13.50 each on Friday in New York, below its IPO price of $14 apiece. The offering had priced at the bottom of its marketed range.

The trading gives the early-stage biotech company focused on autoimmune and inflammatory diseases a market value of nearly $371 million, based on the outstanding shares.

TRex is poised to extend a red-hot year for healthcare debuts in the US. New entrants have garnered almost $8 billion, nearly six times the amount raised in the same period last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

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The company plans to use proceeds from the offering to advance its lead drug candidate, TRB-061, which is in early-stage trials in patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis. The firm expects topline data for the experimental therapy in the middle of next year, according to the filing.

TRex also plans to enter a Phase 1 trial in the first half of 2027 for TRB-071, its experimental drug to treat inflammatory bowel disease.

The firm counts Eli Lilly & Co., SV Health Investors, Pfizer Ventures, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Janus Henderson Investors, Alexandria Venture Investments, Delos Capital and Polaris Partners as investors. Eli Lilly had indicated an interest in buying shares in the IPO, though it doesn’t plan for its stake to exceed 19.9%, an earlier filing showed.

Johnston Erwin, TRex’s chief executive officer, worked at Eli Lilly for 36 years before joining the company. He previously led Lilly New Ventures, the drugmaker’s internal venture capital investment arm.

In January, TRex raised $50 million from an additional closing of Series B preferred stock that included new investments from Janus Henderson and Balyasny Asset Management, according to a statement at the time.

The biotech company incurred a net loss of $34.8 million in 2025, compared with a net loss of $3.1 million a year earlier, according to an earlier filing.

The offering was led by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Evercore Inc., Cantor Fitzgerald, Stifel Financial Corp. and Wedbush PacGrow. The shares trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol TRXB.

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