Viking Therapeutics, a US-based biopharmaceutical company backed by pharmaceutical company Ligand Pharmaceuticals, raised $24m yesterday when it priced its initial public offering at $8 per share.
The company will issue three million shares at the middle of its $7-$9 range on Nasdaq later today.
Viking is developing therapies for metabolic and endocrine disorders. It licensed five drug candidates from Ligand in May 2014 including treatments for diabetes, muscle wasting, anaemia and two therapies for dyslipidemia, a disorder involving an abnormal amount of cholesterol or fat in the blood.
The deal gave Ligand $29m up front that will be provided in the form of stock in the offering, meaning Ligand will have a 37.6% share in Viking post-IPO.
The stake will be diluted to 35.8% if underwriters Laidlaw & Company and Feltl and Company take up the option to buy another 450,000 shares, which would lift the size of the IPO to $27.6m.
Viking plans to use the IPO proceeds to fund clinical trials for several of its drug candidates, with $7m to support a Phase 2 clinical trial of a treatment support bone density in patients with a hip fracture and $5m to fund a Phase 1 trial of treatments for dyslipidemia.
Proceeds will also be used to continue development of Viking’s diabetes treatment, anaemia drug programme and lipid disorders therapy.