Why Now Is the Best Time for Bellicum to Raise Cash

Bellicum Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: BLCM) shares pulled back on Tuesday after the firm announced that it would be conducting a secondary offering to raise some cash. Keep in mind this is coming less than a week after the firm announced a big decision from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Last week, the company announced that the FDA had lifted the clinical hold on studies of BPX-501 in the United States. The decision follows consultation with the FDA and agreement on amendments to the study protocols, including guidance on monitoring and management of neurologic adverse events.

Bellicum will be working with U.S. clinical sites to resume patient recruitment based on the amended protocols. The FDA clinical hold did not affect the BP-004 registrational trial in Europe, which is fully enrolled.

Shares popped on this news, and what better time to fund a secondary offering than after a solid gain in the stock.

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According to the terms of the offering, Bellicum will sell 7.00 million shares, with an overallotment option for an additional 1.05 million shares. Citigroup and Jefferies are acting as the sole underwriters for the offering.

Bellicum described its intention for the net proceeds from this offering as follows:

We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering, together with our existing capital resources, to fund ongoing and planned BPX-501 clinical trials in both the European Union and U.S., Phase 1 clinical trials of controllable CAR T (BPX-601) and TCR (BPX-701) product candidates, IND/IMPD enabling studies and Phase 1 clinical trials for dual-switch CAR-T product candidates, research and development activities, preparation activities for potential future commercialization of BPX-501, and to fund working capital, including general corporate purposes.

Excluding Tuesday’s move, Bellicum had underperformed the broad markets, with the stock down 33% in the past 52 weeks. However, this is a different story in 2018 alone, with shares up about 7%.

Shares of Bellicum were last seen down 13% at $7.76, with a consensus analyst price target of $20.00 and a 52-week trading range of $5.02 to $14.49.

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