Alexza Pharma up on public offering
Alexza Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ALXA) climbed on heavy volume this morning after the Palo Alto, Calif.-based firm announced plans to raise at about $61.5 million through a public offering.
The company priced 6 million shares of its common stock at $10.25 per share. It plans to use the proceeds to fund drug development.
Alexza has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to buy up to an additional 900,000 shares of common stock to cover any over-allotments.
Merrill Lynch & Co. and Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc. are joint book- running managers for the offering. Pacific Growth Equities LLC and RBC Capital Markets Corp. are co-managers for the offering, which Alexza first announced on April 17.
Alexza first went public via an IPO in March 2006. The firm priced its initial public offering at $8 a share, significantly below its original targets.
In its IPO, Alexza raised $44 million in the sale of 5.5 million shares. The IPO had been expected to bring in as much as $66 million and sell in a range of $10 to $12 a share.
In December, the company inked a deal with New York private equity firm Symphony Capital Partners LP and its co-investors to provide $50 million to fund development of two new drugs.
One of the drugs treats panic attacks and one is being developed to treat acute agitation in patients with schizophrenia. Both candidates are in clinical trials.
Under the terms of the agreement, Alexza and Symphony Capital established a separate company called Symphony Allegro Inc., which would provide funding to Alexza to accelerate clinical and other development for the two product candidates.
Alexza has the option to buy back all the rights to the drugs over the next four years.
Shares of Alexza’s stock were up $0.45, or 4.3%, to $11.01 in after-hours trading at 10:51 ET. Volume was unusually heavy – more than 1.1 million shares had changed hands, compared with a three-month average daily volume of 309,944 shares.
The stock has traded between $6.12 (on Aug. 10, 2006) and $15.80 (on March 26) in the past year.
