Antibiotics biotech Nabriva Therapeutics ($NBRV) executed a $92.3 million IPO, pricing well below its projected range but scraping together the funds it needs to start a Phase III study for its lead drug.
The company, headquartered in Vienna, moved 9 million shares at $10.25 each, setting aside another $13.8 million worth of stock for its underwriters to cover overalotments. Nabriva first expected to price at between $15 and $17 a share, later reducing its ambitions to $10.50 and finally pricing even lower.
Despite the valuation haircut, Nabriva's IPO gives the company the cash it needs to press forward with a late-stage trial of lefamulin, a treatment for community-acquired bacterial pneumonia the company plans to move into the first of two Phase III studies before year's end. If all goes according to plan, Nabriva expects to file the treatment for global approvals in 2016.
Beyond pneumonia, Nabriva is developing lefamulin for acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections, hospital-acquired and ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia, and a range of sexually transmitted infections. The company also has an early-stage of pipeline of anti-infectives that, like lefamulin, are derived from the chemical pleuromutilin, which interrupts the protein synthesis process to kill off infectious invasions.
Nabriva's IPO comes on the heels of a multitranche, $120 million equity fundraise announced in April, tapping Vivo Capital, OrbiMed and others in an effort to bankroll lefamulin's future.
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