Dendreon Taps Financing Sooner Than Expected

Shares of Dendreon (DNDN) are trading down some 7% pre-market after the company announced that it was going to offer $75 million in convertible senior subordinated notes that are due in 2014.  The offering is being made under Rule 144A to qualified institutional buyers, so the securities will not be required to be registered until a reseale period.

The terms are still T.B.A. and are being negotiated, plus their is a $25 million overallotment option.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds of this offering to finance its activities relating to the potential commercialization of Provenge®, expand its manufacturing facilities for the commercial production of PROVENGE, fund ongoing and new clinical trials for PROVENGE and its other product candidates, support research and preclinical development activities for its other potential product candidates, and for general corporate purposes, including working capital.

This financial offering seems far sooner than the company had previously focused on.  It never did give a formal date on "when it would raise cash" under its existing shelf filing with the SEC, but the body language signal out of the company would have led you to believe this was being set for much later in 2007.

Jon C. Ogg
June 4, 2007

Jon Oggcan be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.