On July 28, 2015, NantKwest, a clinical-stage immunotherapy company, announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 8,288,000 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $25 per share, raising approximately $207 million. NantKwest is trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol "NK." According to news reports, which cite data published by Renaissance Capital, NantKwest's initial public offering is the largest biotech IPO ever, based on market cap. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati is advising NantKwest in the offering.

The company has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,243,000 shares of common stock, less customary underwriting discounts and commissions. In addition, NantKwest is selling 680,000 shares of its common stock in a separate private placement to existing stockholder Celgene Corporation at the IPO price. BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Jefferies LLC, and Piper Jaffray & Co. are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering, with MLV & Co. LLC acting as co-manager.

Based in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California, NantKwest (formerly known as Conkwest) is focused on harnessing the power of the innate immune system by using the natural killer (NK) cell to treat cancer, infectious diseases, and inflammatory diseases.

The Wilson Sonsini team advising NantKwest in the offering includes the following:

Corporate:
Marty Waters
Dan Koeppen

Technology Transactions:
Miranda Biven
Norm Hovijitra

Intellectual Property:
Matt Bresnahan

Employee Benefits & Compensation:
Scott McCall
Mike Klippert

Real Estate:
Jim McCann

For more information, please see NantKwest's press release.