Japan-based cell therapy company Innovacell is planning to end a drought of biotech IPOs on the Tokyo stock exchange next week, the business’ CEO has confirmed.
Innovacell, which is itself based in Tokyo, is aiming to go public on Feb. 24, a listing outline (PDF) shows. The company plans to initially offer 8.4 million shares, with underwriters having the chance to scoop up an additional 725,300 shares and a further 1.4 million shares available via an overallotment scheme.
The IPO price was determined to be 1,350 Japanese yen per share after preparatory work by Innovacell’s lead underwriter, the company’s co-CEO Colin Lee Novick told Fierce.
All told, it means Innovacell is expecting to rake in 14.17 billion yen ($92 million), Novick added.
The biotech believes it is “the right moment for Innovacell to go public,” said Novick, pointing to the strong performance of Japan’s Nikkei stock market index as well as the biotech’s multi-regional phase 3 trial for ICEF15, a regenerative medicine being developed to treat patients with urge fecal incontinence.
“After years of dialogue with institutional investors, we have seen clear interest in late-stage biotech opportunities where the remaining challenge is commercialization rather than core development risk,” Novick added. “We believe we are at that inflection point.”
Innovacell’s story began as a cell therapy start-up spun out from the Medical University of Innsbruck in Austria. Innovacell was then established in Japan in 2021 as the parent company of that Austrian spin-out.
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Tokyo-based Innovacell’s most recent fundraise was a series D in August 2025 that brought in 7.3 billion yen ($48 million). At the time, the biotech earmarked those funds for the phase 3 trial of ICEF15 in Japan and Europe, as well as to prepare for an additional late-stage study in the U.S.
Some of the proceeds were also assigned to set up the infrastructure needed to manufacture and market ICEF15 in Japan, the U.S. and Europe, as well as “accelerate research and development of pipeline products beyond ICEF15,” the company said at the time.
While 2024 saw a handful biotech IPOs on the Tokyo stock exchange from the likes of mRNA drug discovery company Veritas In Silico, cancer-focused Chordia Therapeutics and stem cell therapy-focused Heartseed, no drug development companies risked going public in Japan last year, according to Novick.
That echoed a wider trend of muted biotech IPO activity around the world in 2025. However, 2026 is already shaping up to be a healthier year for public listings, with companies lining up to ring the Nasdaq bell, as well as industry insiders suggesting to Fierce that other stock exchanges, such as London, may also see a return of biotech listings.
