Seattle-based Omeros has priced its initial public offering of 6.8 million shares at $10 each, at the bottom of the $10 to $12 range it had originally expected. The tiny biotech has helped spur speculation that the traditional biotech IPO may be making a comeback of sorts, though a number of analysts now don't expect to see any real recovery before well into 2010.
Omeros has said that it plans to use the money to wrap a late-stage trial of its lead therapy and push for marketing approval by the FDA. And the developer has plans for mid-stage trials of drugs to treat inflammation and diseases of the central nervous system.
About a week ago Xconomy reported that Omeros' former CFO had accused the company of submitting false time sheets to the NIH for grant work. Richard Klein alleged in a federal lawsuit that he was improperly terminated in January after he had discovered false record keeping and reported it to the audit committee. Omeros denied the allegations. Several days ago Omeros filed new documents in court saying that the company had alerted the NIH of internal mistakes, adding that the NIH had accepted the results of an internal investigation which concluded there was no overbilling.
- here's the Dow Jones report