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After an icy start to the year for initial public offerings, two biopharmaceutical companies on Monday priced offerings that could potentially mark the first IPOs of 2016.

Cambridge, Mass.-based Proteostasis Therapeutics Inc. said it intends to raise up to $62 million in its initial public offering. In a regulatory filing, the company, which is focused on treating cystic fibrosis, said it would sell 3.85 million shares priced at $12 to $14 a piece. Underwriters have the option to buy up to an additional 577,500 shares.

Meanwhile, AveXis Inc., based in Bannockburn, Ill., plans to raise up to $102.6 million through a sale of 4.25 million shares priced between $19 and $21 each. Underwriters have the option to purchase up to an additional 637,500 shares of that offering.

Proteostasis, set to trade on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol PTI, has five drugs in its pipeline. Its lead product candidate, PTI-428, is in early-stage development; the company hasn't yet won regulatory approval for any of its treatments. Proteostasis said it would use IPO proceeds to advance PTI-428 as a treatment for cystic fibrosis into early and midstage clinical trials.

AveXis, for its part, is focused on developing treatments for patients with neurological genetic diseases. The company has one product candidate, AVXS-101, currently in development and said it intends to use IPO proceeds to fund early-stage trials of the drug. AveXis will trade under the symbol AVXS, also on the Nasdaq.

The biopharmaceuticals' IPOs may become the first such offerings of the year, though companies don't typically give timelines for when they will begin trading, and significant amounts of time can sometimes pass between regulatory filings outlining IPOs and the company actually hitting the market.

There were no U.S. IPOs in January, the first monthlong drought since September 2011, when the eurozone crisis was in full swing and the debt rating of the U.S. had just been downgraded. A rocky start to the year has signaled a broad retreat from risk by investors, making it tougher for companies seeking capital to raise it.

While an IPO slowdown is problematic for many companies, the biotech sector is getting special scrutiny from investors because the sector is widely viewed as the most vulnerable to diminishing access to public funding. Several new share offerings by already-public biotech companies have floundered this year, not only pricing at steep discounts, but also falling even further the session after pricing.

Write to Lisa Beilfuss at lisa.beilfuss@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 01, 2016 10:05 ET (15:05 GMT)

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