US-based biopharmaceutical company Otonomy raised $100m from its initial public offering on Wednesday, pricing 6.25 million shares at $16 each.
Otonomy, which is working on treatments for ear diseases and disorders, will invest $35m of the proceeds in securing regulatory approval for AuriPro, an antibiotic it is developing, while a further $35m will go to clinical development of a second treatment and $15m to Phase 1 clinical trials for a third candidate.
The company’s shareholders include pharmaceutical company Novo, which saw its stake reduced from 14.1% to 9.8% in the offering.
Otonomy’s other main shareholders post-IPO are Avalon Ventures, which owns 11.5%, OrbiMed Advisors (10.3%), TPG Biotech (9.8%), Domain Associates *8%) and Rivervest Partners (5.1%).
The offering’s underwriters, J.P. Morgan Securities, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Piper Jaffray and Sanford C. Bernstein, have a 30-day option to buy almost 940,000 additional shares, which would raise the size of the IPO to $115m.
Otonomy had an opening market capitalisation of about $350m. It briefly peaked at $18.44 on the first day of trading and its stock is priced at $16.32 at time of publication.