Urogen Pharma (Nasdaq: URGN), which develops treatment for urological cancer, announced its intention of filing a shelf prospectus for raising $150 million on Nasdaq. The announcement comes shortly after the company appointed a new president and CEO - former Novartis Oncology CEO Liz Barrett and her successful appearance at the JP Morgan conference early this month. The underwriters for the offering are Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Jeffries, together with Oppenheimer.
Urogen published good results early this month in its trial of a treatment for upper urinary tract cancer, which should enable the company to obtaining marketing approval for this product. Urogen's market cap is $864 million. Following the announcement of the planed financing round, Urogen's share price rose 5%, indicating that the market does not believe that the financing round will reflect a substantial discount on the market price.
Urogen will use the money it raises to launch its first product for treatment of upper urinary tract cancer. The company hopes to launch the product this year. It will also use the money to expedite clinical trials of drugs in the company's pipeline for treatment of other types of urinary cancer. Urogen has an agreement with Allergan for Botox delivery to the urinary tract as a treatment for overactive bladder (OAB).
Urogen held its IPO in May 2017, raising $58 million, and raised $60 million in a secondary round a year ago. The return on the company's share since its IPO under CEO Ron Bentsur, whom Barrett replaced, is 300%.
Urogen's chairperson is Arie Belldegrun, who last year sold Kite Pharma to Gilead Sciences for $12 billion. It appears that part of Urogen's growth is attributable to Belldergrun, a legendary figure on Wall Street, devoting far more time and effort to the company (among other things, he recruited Barrett as CEO).
Urogen was founded as TheraCoat in 2004 in the Granot Ventures incubator. Its founder was Asher Holtzer, who founded InsprieMD.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 23, 2019
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