Acceleron gains 33% in first day; Bind prices IPO
This article was originally published in Scrip
Acceleron Pharma soared 33.3% above its $15 initial public offering price on the stock's first day of trading and Bind Therapeutics priced its IPO at $15 per share after the market closed on 19 September.
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Acceleron sold 5.58m shares in its IPOfor gross proceeds of $83.7m. Its partner Celgene concurrently purchased $10m of Acceleron stock in a private placement.
Bind planned to sell 4.7m shares for gross proceeds of $70.5m before fees and the sale of shares set aside to cover excess demand. The IPO priced in the middle of a $14 to $16 range disclosed in early September (scripintelligence.com, 9 September 2013). Certain affiliates of Cambridge-based Bind's directors and principal stockholders planned to buy $14.7m worth of stock in the offering.
The Acceleron IPO priced at the top of a $13 to $15 preliminary range that the company also revealed in early September. At that time the company intended to raise up to $69.8m from the sale of 4.65m shares (scripintelligence.com, 9 September 2013).
Acceleron's stock price closed $4.99 above its IPO price at $19.99 at the end of its first day on the Nasdaq, likely because of the company's support from Celgene.
The company's IPO was even more successful than the offering Five Prime Therapeutics priced at $13 per share on 17 September, which was in the middle of a previously announced $12 to $14 range for the sale of 4m shares (scripintelligence.com, 18 September 2013).
South San Francisco-based Five Prime sold 4.8m shares for gross proceeds of $62.4m and its stock closed at $13.08 at the end of its first day of trading on 18 September. However, the company's protein therapeutics for cancer and autoimmune disorders are in earlier stages of development than Acceleron's programs.
Acceleron will use its IPO proceeds to fund mid-stage studies in various cancer types for its lead drug candidate dalantercept and move preclinical assets into the clinic (scripintelligence.com, 10 August 2013).
The compounds licensed to Celgene – sotatercept and ACE-536 – have been studied for the treatment of beta-thalassemia and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), and one or both of the drugs will enter Phase III clinical trials in the next year or two. Acceleron stands to earn up to $567m in milestone payments plus double-digit royalties under its agreements with Celgene.
The company had $28.5m in cash on its balance sheet as of 30 June compared with $39.6m at the end of 2012, but Acceleron anticipates $86.8m in net proceeds from its IPO after paying fees and selling overallotments to cover excess demand.
Acceleron plans to spend $32m of its new capital on ongoing and planned studies for dalantercept, and the company allocated $7m of the IPO cash to advance preclinical compounds and expand its preclinical portfolio.
The company's drug development is based on the biology of the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-b) protein superfamily, which regulates blood cell formation.
Sotatercept and ACE-536 are products of the company's finding that inhibition of members of the TGF-b superfamily ameliorates anemia in mouse models of beta-thalassemia and MDS.
Dalantercept inhibits blood vessel formation through a mechanism that is distinct from vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitors, but may work well in combination with the drugs.
Bind originally planned to raise up to $80.5m to finance its targeted nanomedicines known as Accurins when the company registered its IPO with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in August (scripintelligence.com, 14 August 2013). Bind had $20.3m in cash on its balance sheet as of 30 June.
The company intends to use its IPO proceeds primarily to fund two ongoing Phase II clinical trials for BIND-014, which targets prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) to deliver chemotherapy directly into cancer cells. Bind will report data from its non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) Phase II trials in 2015.
Amgen, Pfizer and AstraZeneca signed license agreements earlier in 2013 to develop nanomedicines using Bind's platform technology.