• Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Parsippany, N.J., priced an underwritten public offering of 6 million shares of common stock at $9.75 per share, a 3.6 percent discount to Wednesday's closing price. The offering will yield gross proceeds of about $58.5 million and will close on or about April 17. Funds will be used to support manufacturing and commercialization of Exparel (bupivacaine liposome injectable suspension), to expand the Exparel franchise and for general corporate purposes. Jefferies and Co. Inc. and Barclays Capital Inc. are joint book-running managers for the offering, with Piper Jaffray and Co., Wedbush PacGrow Life Sciences and Brean Murray, Carret and Co. as co-managers. Underwriters will have a 30-day option to purchase an additional 900,000 shares of stock to cover overallotments. Shares of Pacira (NASDAQ:PCRX) closed Thursday at $9.73, down 39 cents.

• Tioga Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, said it closed a $10 million Series B financing led by new investor Thomas, McNerney & Partners, which invested $8 million in the round. Existing investor Genesys Capital Partners also participated. Tioga is testing asimadoline, a kappa opioid receptor agonist, in diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome. The drug is in a 600-subject Phase III trial being conducted under a special protocol assessment. In connection with the financing, Jason Brown, of Thomas, McNerney & Partners, joined Tioga's board. (See BioWorld Today, June 4, 2010.)