A South San Francisco company in a race to come up with a treatment for a deadly liver disease wants to raise $75 million in an initial public offering.

NGM Biopharmaceuticals Inc. — backed by the venture capital firm managed by Dave Goeddel, the first scientist hired by [Genentech Incorporated] Inc. 40 years ago — plans to use the cash to fund further development of its lead drug tackling nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH.

It is the 17th Bay Area life sciences IPO filed or completed this year.

The quest for a treatment for NASH, a fatty liver disease linked to diet, has turned into a race including Foster City-based Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD), Allergan plc (NYSE: AGN) and Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS). While that could result in patients getting a quick fix for a growing health problem, companies and investors see the tens of millions of people affected by the condition translating into blockbuster, billion-dollar drugs.

NGM is clearly near the front of the pack. Its lead drug, a once-daily injectable called NGM-282, is an engineered variant of the human hormone FGF19 and will enter a mid-stage trial in first-quarter 2019.

Earlier studies indicate NGM-282 can improve NASH and reverse liver fibrosis — or liver scarring that is a hallmark of the condition — within three months.

Under a collaboration with Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK), NGM also has a once-a-month injectable insulin sensitizer, NGM-313, that is focused on NASH and type 2 diabetes. The drug has completed a Phase I clinical trial in the Food and Drug Administration's three-phase clinical trial process.

Merck also is planning early-stage clinical trials of two other NGM drugs that target obesity.

NGM's lineup of seven potential drugs could make it a top target for investors looking for a lineup of next big things, strong management and an already-strong balance sheet. NGM has cash, equivalents and short-term securities totaling $218.8 million at the end of last year and an accumulated deficit of $146.7 million.

Because of the long time it takes to take a drug from concept through clinical trials — as much as $1 billion and a dozen years, according to some studies — biotech companies rarely have product revenue when they go public.

The 153-employee company's biggest shareholders are Goeddel's The Column Group, which owns 25.1 percent, Merck (16.3 percent), Prospect Venture Partners (9.1 percent) and Topspin Fund (8.9 percent), according to NGM's IPO filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

NGM's management team, however, is in transition. David Woodhouse, the company's chief financial officer for three years, took over last month as CEO as Bill Rieflin became executive chairman. Woodhouse previously was an investment banker and co-head of biotech investment banking with Goldman Sachs & Co.

Last month President Jeff Jonker stepped down and was replaced by Aetna Wun Trombley, who had been NGM's chief operating officer for three years and head of business development the previous four years.

"Along with our entire management team, David and Aetna possess the leadership experience, energy and know-how to continue to build and guide NGM in the next phase of our evolution," Rieflin said in a press release Monday about Woodhouse's and Trombley's appointments.

NGM's constants include 67-year-old Goeddel, who at times has served as president, chairman and now lead independent director, and founder Jin-Long Chen, NGM's chief scientific officer who worked with Goeddel at Tularik Inc. and Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) after it bought Tularik in 2004.

How important is Chen? The Merck collaboration with NGM includes language, according to the company's IPO filing, that would allow the large pharmaceutical company to shift the focus of its relationship with NGM to later-stage drugs if Chen left the company.