Aspen Neuroscience Raises $140.6M in IPO to Advance Parkinson's Cell Therapy

Aspen Neuroscience priced its initial public offering Thursday evening, raising $140.6 million to push its experimental Parkinson's cell therapy deeper into clinical testing. The company sold roughly 9.4 million shares at $15 each, the low end of its marketed range, and begins trading Friday on the Nasdaq under the ticker "ASPE." The proceeds fund sasineprocel, a one-time treatment that reprograms a patient's skin cells into stem cells and then into dopamine-producing neuron precursors. Aspen is testing the therapy in an open-label Phase 1/2a trial in patients with moderately advanced Parkinson's, with long-term data expected in 2028; it plans to launch a Phase 3 study by the end of next year. A second cell therapy for pediatric leukodystrophies will soon enter preclinical testing. Aspen is among a handful of developers pursuing Parkinson's cell therapies, competing with Bayer subsidiary BlueRock Therapeutics, whose treatment is in Phase 3. Its IPO brings the count of biotechs listing on U.S. exchanges in 2026 to 29, the most since 2021, though cell and gene therapy developers have drawn limited interest.