Kardigan shares soar after Nasdaq debut

Investing.com -- Kardigan Inc. shares rose iver 27% roughly one hour into its Nasdaq debut on Thursday, after the heart-health focused biotech raised $400 million in an initial public offering.

The company's shares opened at $16.25 each as of 12:39 p.m. in New York, above its IPO price of $16 apiece, and were trading above $20.30 by approximately 1:30 p.m. that day.

The trading gives the company a market value of nearly $1.8 billion, based on the outstanding shares.

The heart-health focused biotech sold 25 million shares at $16 each, the company said Wednesday. The firm had marketed 23.3 million shares for $14 to $16 each, an earlier filing showed.

Kardigan's Chief Executive Officer Tassos Gianakakos previously served as the CEO of MyoKardia. That company was acquired for about $13 billion by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. in 2020. Kardigan is developing separate drugs to treat genetic dilated cardiomyopathy, calcific aortic valve stenosis and acute severe hypertension.

CEO Gianakakos said the growing boom in GLP-1s, a class of weight loss drugs, will not reduce the need for better heart disease drugs.

Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the American Heart Association. The organization counts the growing prevalence of high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity as contributors to increased risk.

Kardigan had a net loss of $56.1 million in the first quarter of 2026, compared with a net loss of $18 million in the same period a year earlier, the filing shows.

In October, Kardigan raised $254 million from a Series B financing round backed by new investors Fidelity Management & Research Co. and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. and existing backers ARCH Venture Partners and HRTG Partners. Arch and HRTG are Kardigan's two biggest shareholders, with 22.4% each, a previous filing showed.

The offering was led by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Jefferies Financial Group Inc., Leerink Partners and Toronto-Dominion Bank.

The shares now trade on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol KARD.

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