Tesaro Inc announces IPO

PRESS RELEASE - Tesaro Inc sets IPO

Tesaro, Inc., a Waltham, Mass.- based biotech focused on licensing and developing cancer therapies and oncology supportive care products, has filed for an initial public offering of stock with the aim of raising $86.2 million.

The firm last June raised $101 million in a Series B round led by West Coast venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers , and other backers include New Enterprise Associates , which took part in a $20 million Series A that launched the firm in 2010.

TESARO is seeking to trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol "TSRO." Underwriters include Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Leerink Swan.

In its IPO intentions filing with the SEC on Friday, TESARO said it has licensed and is currently developing two product candidates - rolapitant (currently in Phase 3 clinical trials for the prevention of chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting) and TSR-011 (an orally available anaplastic lymphoma kinase inhibitor, currently in preclinical development). The products aim to be safer and more effective than current treatments, the company said.

TESARO has not generated revenue so far, and had $15.4 million in expenses for 2011, according to the filing.

Other investors in the company are InterWest Partners , T. Rowe Price , Pappas Ventures, Oracle Partners, Deerfield Management and Leerink Swann.

TESARO joins Radius Health and Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, both of Cambridge, on the list of Massachusetts biotechs in registration for an IPO. Cambridge biotech Verastem completed its $55 million IPO in January.