Corporate venturing units investing in pharmaceutical companies are still seeing light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to realising, even partially, their investments into companies looking to treat cancer. One of the latest exits in the healthcare sector includes Aquinox Pharmaceuticals, a Nasdaq pharmaceutical company developing drugs to treat inflation and cancer.
The initial public offering of 4,830,000 shares of its common stock had a public offering price of $11.00, which included 630,000 shares issued upon the exercise in full of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares. All of the shares of common stock were offered by Aquinox. The aggregate offering price was $53.1m, before underwriting discounts, commissions and estimated expenses. The net proceeds from the sale of the shares, after deducting the underwriting discounts, commissions and other estimated offering expenses, will be approximately $47m.
Jefferies LLC and Cowen and Company acted as joint book-running managers and Canaccord Genuity acted as co-manager for the offering.
In April 2013, the corporate venturing units of Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer were among investors in an $18m round for the Vancouver drug company. The series C round for Aquinox Pharmaceuticals was led by Johnson & Johnson Development Corp. and saw participation from new investor Augment Investments Ltd. and existing investors Pfizer Venture Investments, Ventures West Capital and Baker Brothers Investment.