Switzerland-based MoonLake Immunotherapeutics (Nasdaq: MLTX) announced the pricing of an upsized underwritten public offering of Class A ordinary shares and pre-funded warrants, raising approximately USD 200 million in gross proceeds to fund pre-commercialization and commercialization activities for sonelokimab ahead of a planned Biologics License Application submission in hidradenitis suppurativa. The offering was upsized from an initial target of USD 150 million announced two days earlier, a 33% increase that indicates strong institutional demand ahead of what would be MoonLake's first regulatory filing.
The offering comprises 9,000,000 Class A ordinary shares priced at USD 20.00 per share, with pre-funded warrants available to certain investors in lieu of shares at USD 19.9999 per warrant, exercisable immediately. Underwriters were granted a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,500,000 shares at the public offering price. MoonLake stated proceeds will be used alongside existing cash to fund sonelokimab research, development, pre-commercialization, and commercialization activities, if approved, and for general corporate purposes. Leerink Partners, Guggenheim Securities, Cantor, and LifeSci Capital are acting as joint bookrunning managers, with H.C. Wainwright and Clear Street as lead managers.
Company overview and pipeline
MoonLake is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company founded in 2021 and built around a single licensed asset, sonelokimab (SLK), acquired from Merck KGaA. Sonelokimab is an approximately 40 kDa humanized Nanobody that simultaneously inhibits IL-17A and IL-17F by blocking the IL-17A/A, IL-17A/F, and IL-17F/F dimers that drive inflammation, with a third domain binding human serum albumin to extend half-life and facilitate tissue penetration.
The lead program is in hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), where the Phase III VELA-1 and VELA-2 trials enrolled 838 patients. Week 52 data reported in June 2026 showed 67.2% HiSCR75 and 33.1% HiSCR100 response rates across both studies. The VELA-TEEN trial in adolescents aged 12–17 reported 68% HiSCR75 at Week 24. Following a positive final pre-BLA meeting with the FDA in April 2026, MoonLake plans to submit the HS BLA by end of September 2026. A US commercial launch, absent Priority Review, is targeted for Q3/Q4 2027.
The capital raise is timed to build the commercial infrastructure required ahead of that launch. As of Q1 2026, MoonLake held USD 357.9 million in cash and short-term marketable securities, with a runway projected to end-2027; the USD 200 million raise materially extends that runway into the commercialization phase.