Britain’s Oxford Nanopore is planning an IPO of 2.5 billion on the London Stock Exchange

Oxford Nanopore announced plans on Friday to go public by listing at least 25% of its shares on the London Stock Exchange (LSEG.L) in a move that would value the life sciences company at more than 2.5 billion ($3.5 billion).

The company, which has been working on rapid COVID-19 testing, hopes to cut its losses over the next five years and break even.

Last year it partnered with the UK government to roll out its new LamPORE test with the aim of containing COVID-19 cases.

The company is at the forefront of a new generation of nanopore-based detection technology, whose products enable “real-time, high-performance, scalable analysis of DNA and RNA.”

If the IPO goes through, that would be important for the London Stock Exchange, as most pharmaceutical and life science companies in the UK tend to list on the Nasdaq (^IXIC).

“We as a company are already a global tech player and have a global shareholder base and when we did an analysis we realized that the stockholders you pick up in London are of similar quality to those you would pick up in New York,” CEO Gordon Sanghera told reporters in an appeal.

Nanopore sensors are technology capable of rapidly characterizing individual molecules.

Sequencing these molecules is used to understand the biology of humans, including diseases such as cancer and pathogens such as bacteria, viruses and fungi.

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The group believes there is an additional opportunity for the technology in applied markets, including infectious diseases, immune profiling and cancer, food safety, agriculture or other industrial settings.

“I believe we are just at the foot of what is possible,” Sanghera said.

“Looking further ahead, we see the potential for a global Internet of Living Things, a future where real-time networks of biological sensors can be used to help the most diverse communities.”

This could include tracking the spread of viruses in humans, animals and environments, tracking marine ecology sensors to help understand climate change, and perhaps even being embedded in wearable devices that track health data.

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“An IPO is a step towards realizing our vision, supporting our ambitious growth plans and increasing our ability to innovate and grow,” said Sanghera.

The company said DNA/RNA sequencing represents an estimated $5.7 billion market in 2021 with an estimated compound annual growth rate of 18% between 2020 and 2023.

Oxford Nanopore raised 84.4 million in private funding from existing and new investors last year.

Investors in the round included International Holdings Company, based in Abu Dhabi, and RPMI Railpen, a UK pension fund.

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