Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (INO) today announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 12,500,000 shares of its common stock, offered at a price to the public of $6.00 per share. The gross proceeds to Inovio from the offering are expected to be $75.0 million, before deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses payable by Inovio. All of the shares are being offered by Inovio. The offering is expected to close on July 25, 2017, subject to customary closing conditions. In addition, Inovio has granted the underwriters a 30‑day option to purchase up to 1,875,000 additional shares of its common stock on the same terms and conditions.
Inovio anticipates using the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, including clinical trial expenses, research and development expenses, general and administrative expenses, manufacturing expenses and other business development activities.
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Inovio sparked a rally in May after announcing positive early-stage results for its experimental HIV vaccine. More recently, news that the FDA would allow the company's only late-stage clinical trial to continue lifted the stock a bit further.
Beyond these two, the company has more candidates in clinical-stage development than most biotechs several times its size, which isn't cheap. Inovio recorded research and development expenses of $24.5 million during the first three months of the year alone.
The company received about $10.4 million in the form of grants and collaboration revenue, but it still burned through $23.1 million during the first quarter. Adding the likely proceeds of this upcoming share offering to whatever remains of the $100.7 million in cash and short-term investments on its balance sheet at the end of March will lengthen its runway somewhat. Until Inovio has an application ready to submit to the FDA, though, investors should remain braced for more share offerings ahead.
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