Health and Healthcare

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Announces Secondary Offering

Chris Lange

Published: September 12, 2017 10:50 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 8:17 am

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: BCRX) watched its shares fall handily on Tuesday after the firm announced a secondary offering. The company plans on selling $80 million of common stock, with an overallotment option for an additional $12 million. BioCryst did not release any other pricing details.

The underwriters for the offering are JPMorgan and Barclays.

For some quick background: BioCryst optimizes and develops novel small molecule drugs that block key enzymes involved in rare diseases. The company has several ongoing development programs: BCX7353 and second generation oral inhibitors of plasma kallikrein for hereditary angioedema, and galidesivir, a broad spectrum viral RNA polymerase inhibitor that is a potential treatment for filoviruses.

According to the firm:

All of the shares to be sold in the offering are being sold by BioCryst, with the proceeds to be used for general corporate purposes, which may include funding the global launch preparation of BCX7353; expanding our global awareness and commercial and manufacturing efforts; expanding our infrastructure, including commercial and manufacturing, to benefit BCX7353 and the rest of our programs; supporting the initiation of the Phase 3 clinical trial for BCX7353, the long term safety study, and all remaining preclinical and clinical studies to support a new drug application filing for BCX7353; funding an exploratory Phase 2 trial for acute treatment with BCX7353; and advancing our early-stage programs into clinical trials.

Excluding Tuesday’s move, the stock was down 9% year to date. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock was actually up close to 33%.

Shares of BioCryst were last seen down over 7% at $5.30, with a consensus analyst price target of $9.50 and a 52-week range of $3.95 to $6.22.