June 18 (Reuters) - Kardigan's shares rose 1.6% in their Nasdaq debut on ‌Thursday, after the heart drug ‌developer raised $400 million in an upsized U.S. initial ​public offering.

The Princeton, New Jersey-based company's shares opened at $16.25, above its IPO price of $16 per share, after Kardigan sold ‌25 million shares ⁠on Wednesday at the top end of its marketed range ⁠of $14 to $16.

The strong market debut underscores renewed investor appetite for biotech companies ​with advanced ​clinical programs and ​promising drug pipelines ‌as improving market conditions reopen the IPO window for the sector.

Kardigan's debut adds to a string of successful biotech listings this year, following strong first-day ‌performances by autoimmune disease-focused ​Odyssey Therapeutics, weight-loss drug ​developer Kailera ​Therapeutics and proteomics company Alamar ‌Biosciences.

The clinical-stage biotech Kardigan ​is developing ​precision medicines for cardiovascular diseases and is advancing three late-stage experimental therapies- ​danicamtiv, ‌ataciguat and tonlamarsen.

(Reporting by Aditi Tiwari ​and Prakhar Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing ​by Shailesh Kuber)