AcelRx Pharmaceuticals, a US-based developer of pain therapies formerly known as SuRx Pharmaceuticals, has halved its flotation on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
AcelRx had planned to raise $86m in its initial public offering (IPO) but is now offering eight million shares at $5 each, with a further 1.2 million available if there is enough demand, according to its regulatory filing. Existing shareholders have committed to buy 4.8 million of the available shares.
AcelRx has raised venture capital (VC) backing from Kaiser Permanente Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of healthcare company Kaiser Permanente, and VCs Alta Partners, Skyline Ventures and Three Arch Partners.
Kaiser owns 5.5% of AcelRx (2 million shares), and the three VCs an aggregate 86%.
AcelRx raised $20m in its series B round in February 2008 at $4 per share and $14.8m in its series C round at $0.99 per share in November last year. An $8m bridge loan to convert into shares was sold in September.
Investment bank Piper Jaffray is AcelRx’s lead underwriter on the initial public offering.