Health and Healthcare

La Jolla Gears Up for Secondary Offering

La Jolla Pharmaceuticals Co. (NASDAQ: LJPC) has been on a tear over the past year. Now it is looking to capitalize on its increased price and raise more capital. The company announced the pricing of an underwritten offering of 2.55 million shares of its common stock at $38.00 per share. There is an overallotment option for an additional 382,500 shares of common stock. The total offering is valued at roughly $111.4 million.

The offering is expected to close on or about September 15, subject to customary closing conditions.

Jefferies and Cowen are the joint book-running managers for the offering. Chardan, LifeSci and Noble Life Science Partners are acting as co-managers for the offering.

La Jolla Pharmaceutical is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of innovative therapies intended to significantly improve outcomes in patients suffering from life-threatening diseases. It has several product candidates in development. LJPC-501 is its proprietary formulation of angiotensin II for the potential treatment of catecholamine-resistant hypotension. LJPC-401 is its novel formulation of hepcidin for the potential treatment of conditions characterized by iron overload, such as hereditary hemochromatosis and beta thalassemia. LJPC-30Sa and LJPC-30Sb are next-generation gentamicin derivatives for the potential treatment of serious bacterial infections and rare genetic disorders, such as cystic fibrosis and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

La Jolla intends to use the net proceeds from the underwritten offering for general corporate purposes, including funding its ongoing and future clinical trials, and for general and administrative expenses.

So far in 2015, La Jolla has vastly outperformed the market, with shares are up nearly 130% year to date, while over the past 52 weeks shares are up over a whopping 350%.

Shares of La Jolla were down 9% at $38.50 Thursday afternoon. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $41.80 and a 52-week trading range of $7.20 to $44.99.

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