Verastem IPO, Launching Stem Cells Against Breast Cancer (VSTM)

Verastem, Inc. (NASDAQ: VSTM) is joining the class of launched IPOs in 2012.  The company priced its initial public offering of 5,500,000 shares of common stock at a price of $10.00 per share.

All of the shares in the offering are being sold by Verastem and that will generate some $55 million in gross proceeds before underwriting fees and charges and without consideration of any overallotment. 

UBS Investment Bank and Leerink Swann were the joint book-running managers for the offering; co-managers were listed as Lazard Capital Markets, Oppenheimer & Co., and Rodman & Renshaw.  The underwriting group was granted an option for 30 days to purchase up to an additional 825,000 shares of common stock from the company to cover over-allotments at the same terms as the pricing of the shares.

Verastem calls itself “a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing drugs to treat breast and other cancers by targeting cancer stem cells.”  If any sector in emerging pharma and biotech could use good right now, it is stem cells.

JON C. OGG