Mesoblast, an Australia-based stem therapy developer backed by pharmaceuticals producer Cephalon, has raised $68.3m in an initial public offering on Nasdaq
The company issued approximately 8.54 million American depositary shares priced at $8.00 each. The offering valued it at about $540m.
Founded in 2004, the same year as it floated on the Australian stock exchange, Mesoblast’s stem cell-based platform is used as the basis for the development of regenerative medicine treatments. It has five product candidates in active phase 3 trials, or which are phase 3-ready.
Mesoblast plans to put $21m of the IPO proceeds towards scaling its commercial manufacturing capabilities for its tier 1 and 2 product candidates, while an additional $22m will support ongoing clinical programs for tier 1 candidates.
Cephalon, a subsidiary of Israel-based pharmaceutical firm Teva, invested $130m in Mesoblast in 2011 as part of a development and commercialisation agreement, and held a 16.5% stake that was diluted to 14.9% in the offering.
Other notable Mesoblast shareholders include CEO Silviu Itescu (an 18.2% stake post-IPO), M&G Investment Group (10.4%), Capital Research Global Investors (7.1%) and Thorney Holdings (5.1%).
Pharmaceutical company Celgene invested $45m in Mesoblast in June this year, but holds a stake worth less than 5%. Mesoblast also raised $150m in a 2013 private placement.
JP Morgan and Credit Suisse are joint book-running managers for the offering, and Maxim and Ladenburg Thalmann are serving as co-managers. The company’s stock closed at $8.11 after its first day of trading on Friday.