Ocular Therapeutics Sinks Following Secondary Offering

Health and Healthcare

Published: January 24, 2017 3:13 pm

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 3:34 pm

Ocular Therapeutix, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCUL) saw its shares take a dive on Tuesday after the company announced pricing on its secondary offering. The company is pricing 3.57 million shares at $7 per share. At this price the entire offering is valued up to $25 million. The offering is expected to close on or about January 27.

The only underwriter for this offering is Cantor Fitzgerald which is acting as the sole bookrunner.

This is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative therapies for diseases and conditions of the eye using its proprietary hydrogel platform technology.

Ocular’s bioresorbable hydrogel-based drug product candidates are designed to provide extended delivery of therapeutic agents to the eye. The lead product candidates are Dextenza (dexamethasone insert), for the treatment of post-surgical ocular inflammation and pain, allergic conjunctivitis and inflammatory dry eye disease, and OTX-TP, for the treatment of glaucoma and ocular hypertension, which are extended delivery, drug-eluting inserts that are placed into the canaliculus through a natural opening called the punctum located in the inner portion of the eyelid near the nose.

The company’s intracanalicular inserts combine its hydrogel technology with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved therapeutic agents with the goal of providing extended delivery of drug to the eye. Also the company has an intravitreal hydrogel depot which is in preclinical development for the treatment of diseases and conditions of the back of the eye.

Ocular has entered into a collaboration, option and license deal with Regeneron Pharma for the development and potential commercialization of products containing the extended-delivery hydrogel depot in combination with Regeneron’s large molecule VEGF-targeting compounds, with the initial focus on the VEGF trap aflibercept, currently marketed under the brand name Eylea.

The company expects to use the net proceeds from this offering to further develop its pipeline as well as to fund its New Drug Application (NDA) for Dextenza. The remainder will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Shares of Ocular were last trading down over 8.5% at $6.90, with a consensus analyst price target of $28.40 and a 52-week trading range of $4.04 to $14.50.