August 23, 2016
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Sophiris Bio , located in La Jolla, California, announced yesterday that it plans to offer and sell its common shares and warrants in order to buy additional common shares in an underwritten public offering. Piper Jaffray & Co. is the book-running manager.
Warrants are a type of security that lets the holder buy the company’s underlying stock at a fixed price.
Sophiris Bio is focused on developing topsalysin, a clinical-stage drug to treat urological diseases. It has successfully finished a Phase III clinical trial to treat symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The drug has also successfully wrapped up a Phase IIa trial to treat clinically significant, localized low to intermediate risk prostate cancer prior to radical therapy.
At the company’s second-quarter financial report on Aug. 9, the company stated that on May 11 it had closed a registered offering where it raised net proceeds of $4.6 million. And during June and July, it received proceeds of $2.4 million from the exercise of warrants, which brought the total up to $7 million.
“2016 is proving to be a transformational year for Sophiris,” Randall Woods, the company’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “In the past quarter, we completed a Phase IIa proof of concept trial of topsalysin in localized prostate cancer in which topsalysin demonstrated the ability to ablate tumor cells in 50 percent of patients, including two men who experienced complete ablation of their targeted tumor with no evidence of any tumor remaining at six months post treatment. We also presented complete results from the Phase III BPH study in a late breaking presentation at the AUA 2016 Annual Meeting, demonstrating that topsalysin met the primary endpoint of a reduction in symptom score compared to the vehicle control arm.”
As of June 30, the company had 9.3 million in cash and cash equivalents, and net working capital of $5.7 million. The company believes that will be enough to fund operations for the next 12 months if it doesn’t begin any new topsalysin studies. “We do not plan to initiate any new clinical trials,” the company stated, “including a second Phase III trial in BPH or a second Phase II trial in localized prostate cancer unless we obtain additional financing. We are actively evaluating strategic alternatives, including potential partnering arrangements, financings or a strategic transaction.”
Sophiris Bio has been doing fairly well recently, although it dropped 28.87 percent in after-market trading after the news of the new offering was made. Shares traded on Nov. 11, 2015 for $3.20, dropped to $0.88 on May 18, 2016, and spiked to $5.95 on July 25, 2016. Shares dropped to $4.31 on Aug. 16, and is currently trading for $5.82.
The consensus price target estimates for the next year is $8.25, according to Review Fortune.
