The Hits Keep Coming With Curis's Secondary Offering

Health and Healthcare

Published: December 9, 2020 9:53 am

Curis Inc. (NASDAQ: CRIS) shares are on the run again. This time it’s due to a secondary offering. Normally, secondary offerings push stock prices down, but after the stock more than quadrupled on Tuesday, it doesn’t seem the bulls are done yet.

Note that the stock closed up about 355% on Tuesday. Shares closed Monday at $1.44 apiece and reached as high as $7.90 in Tuesday’s session, finally closing at $6.55.

This huge move was the result of preliminary data from its ongoing early-stage study in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Specifically, the reported preliminary data were from Curis’s ongoing open-label, single arm Phase 1 dose escalation 3+3 study of orally administered CA-4948 monotherapy in adult patients with AML or high-risk MDS.

The primary objective of the study is to determine the maximum tolerated dose and recommended Phase 2 dose for CA-4948 based on safety and tolerability, dose-limiting toxicities and any biologic activity, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic findings from the study trial population.

As a result of Tuesday’s success, the company has decided to commence a secondary offering. Curis intends to price its 25.65 million shares at $5.75 apiece for total gross proceeds of $147.5 million.

Cantor Fitzgerald and JonesTrading Institutional Services will act as joint lead book-runners and underwriters for the offering.

Curis intends to use the net proceeds from the public offering, together with its existing cash and cash equivalents, to continue development of CA-4948, in collaboration with Aurigene, and CI-8893, in collaboration with ImmuNext, and for general working capital and capital expenditures.

Curis stock traded up about 19% to $7.80, in a new 52-week range of $0.62 to $8.31. The consensus price target is $7.00. Also, volume for this stock is off the charts with over 35 million shares having moved in just the first 20 minutes of trading.