Immunomedics Inc. went small with its first financing in more than five years, pricing an underwritten public offering of 6.1 million shares at $2.30 each – a 15 percent discount to Thursday's closing price – and seeking to raise just $14 million.

The company's shares (NASDAQ:IMMU) haven't traded that low in more than three years, and investors jumped on the opportunity. On Friday, the stock closed at $2.46, down 24 cents, as volume spiked to more than 2.9 million shares – more than 11 times its daily average.

The Morris Plains, N.J.-based biotech granted underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 913,044 additional shares for overallotments, potentially adding $2.1 million to the raise. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. and Cowen and Co. LLC are acting as joint book-running managers.

Chau Cheng, the company's senior director of investor relations and grant management, declined to comment on the company's pricing strategy. But, he acknowledged, "we do expect some nondilutive financing events in the near future," characterizing the offering as a bit of "backfill" until those payments are in hand.

"Typically, we like to have a year's worth of cash," Cheng told BioWorld Today. As of Dec. 31, 2012, halfway through the company's 2013 fiscal year, Immunomedics reported $21.4 million in cash and equivalents, compared to $16.3 million a year earlier.

The company's last registered direct offering was in 2007, when Immunomedics raised $24 million to maintain momentum in developing its pipeline of 90-percent-humanized monoclonal antibodies (MAb). (See BioWorld Today, May 3, 2007.)

Since that time, the biotech has been funded largely through milestone payments from licensing deals and collaborations, along with a few grants. In 2008, the company inked a potential $620 million agreement with Nycomed GmbH, of Zurich, Switzerland, for global rights in all noncancer indications to the subcutaneous formulation of its humanized anti-CD20 antibody, veltuzumab. In exchange, Immunomedics received $40 million up front and up to $580 million in milestone payments tied to clinical, regulatory and commercial achievements, as well as escalating double-digit royalties. (See BioWorld Today, July 16, 2008.)

Earlier, Immunomedics licensed worldwide autoimmune disease rights for its anti-CD22 antibody, epratuzumab, to UCB SA, of Brussels, Belgium, in a potential $203 million deal that included $38 million up front and milestone payments of up to $145 million in cash and $20 million in equity investments, based on approvals in different geographic areas and for different indications. UCB also picked up clinical development and commercialization costs. (See BioWorld Today, May 11, 2006.)

In 2009, the companies reported results from a Phase IIb dosing study of the drug showing a 24.9 percent treatment advantage over placebo in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. Those findings drove shares of Immunomedics up 60 percent in a single day. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 28, 2009.)

The following week, the company filed a registration statement with the SEC for a $151 million offering, but Immunomedics never acted on that filing, Cheng confirmed. Instead, the company was awarded a trio of two-year Small Business Innovation Research grants totaling $2.1 million that supported early stage programs and a clinical trial of combined radio- and immunotherapy for aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Immunomedics also entered a partnership and cross-licensing deal with Alexis Biotech Ltd., of London, to jointly develop targeted vaccines against cancers, including melanoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and infectious diseases such as AIDS. The deal combined Dock-and-Lock conjugation technology developed by Immunomedics and majority-owned subsidiary IBC Pharmaceuticals Inc. with Alexis' HLA-antibody-targeting technology. The partners are sharing development costs, with Immunomedics retaining first worldwide commercialization rights.

The following year, Immunomedics received its first $5 million milestone payment from Nycomed and signed a collaboration with GE Healthcare to discover diagnostic agents using Immunomedics' F-18 labeling technology. Terms were not disclosed, but Immunomedics shifted more research costs off its books, with GE picking up the tab.

At the end of 2010, Immunomedics and UCB launched two Phase III studies of epratuzumab in moderate-to-severe SLE. Those global registration trials are continuing, and UCB expects to report top-line data in the first half of 2014, according to Cheng. The drug has fast-track status from the FDA in SLE. (See BioWorld Today, Dec. 15, 2010.)

In 2011, the companies revised their license agreement, giving UCB the option to select a partner to sublicense autoimmune rights in certain territories while returning to Immunomedics its buy-in right for cancer indications in the compound. Immunomedics also received a nonrefundable cash payment of $30 million and the option to receive another $30 million in cash if UCB exercises its sublicensing right. (See BioWorld Today, Dec. 29, 2011.)

Internally, the company is focused on clivatuzumab, a humanized MAb targeting a mucin antigen expressed in most pancreatic cancers but not pancreatitis, normal pancreas or most other normal tissues. The yttrium-90-labeled antibody has orphan drug status in both the U.S. and European Union and fast-track status in the U.S. in pancreatic cancer.

Immunomedics is evaluating the drug in a Phase Ib study in patients who previously received at least two prior therapies, and enrollment was completed ahead of schedule.

"We expect to complete the study by the first half of 2013, and we have submitted an abstract to upcoming medical conferences to present those data in June," Cheng said, adding that the company plans to advance the compound on its own.

The shelf registration for the current offering, expected to close on or about Feb. 27, was filed in October 2012, authorizing the sale of up to 20 million shares. In its preliminary prospectus supplement, Immunomedics reported 75.7 million outstanding shares as of Dec. 31.

In other financings news:

• Blaze Bioscience Inc., of Seattle, completed a Series A financing totaling $8.5 million, bringing the total funds raised since the company's inception to $9.8 million. The round was raised from individual investors, including physicians and biotech executives. Most investors involved in Blaze's seed funding round increased their level of participation. The funding will support the advancement of Blaze's Tumor Paint product candidate, BLZ-100, into clinical development for use in surgery in multiple solid tumor types. (See BioWorld Today, June 11, 2012.)

• Celsion Corp., of Lawrenceville, N.J., said it received commitments from institutional investors to purchase an aggregate of $15 million of the company's securities in an at-the-market registered direct offering, led by a dedicated health care fund. The company agreed to sell 15,000 shares of its zero coupon preferred stock, convertible into a total of approximately 12.1 million shares of common stock, and warrants that may potentially be exercised for up to approximately 6 million additional shares of common stock. The preferred stock will not have a required dividend right or preferences over the company's common stock, including liquidation preference rights. The offering is expected to close on or about Feb. 27, subject to customary conditions. The company said proceeds from the offering would boost its unaudited cash and investment balance to about $47 million. James Securities Inc. acted as exclusive placement agent. Earlier this month, Celsion's shares (NASDAQ:CLSN) plunged by more than 80 percent following the failure of the Phase III HEAT trial of ThermoDox, an encapsulated form of doxorubicin, in hepatocellular carcinoma. On Friday, the company's shares fell to a 52-week low of $1.09 before inching back to close at $1.15, down 4 cents. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 1, 2013.)

• Oxygen Biotherapeutics Inc., of Morrisville, N.C., said it entered into definitive agreements with an unnamed institutional investor for a $2.1 million financing, consisting of $1 .6 million of registered shares of Series B-1 convertible preferred stock and $500,000 in unregistered shares of Series B-2 convertible preferred stock, which may be converted into common stock at 25 cents per share. The transaction also provided for the company to issue unregistered warrants to purchase up to 12.6 million shares of common stock with an initial exercise price of 50 cents. In connection with the offering, the company also agreed to exchange outstanding warrants to purchase 1.4 million shares of common stock held by certain institutional investors for 400,000 shares of common stock and $380,000 in cash. Oxygen plans to use proceeds from the offering to continue clinical trials and efforts to obtain regulatory approval of its perfluorocarbon-based emulsion, Oxycyte. The company said proceeds would fund operations through midyear. The offering is expected to close on or about Feb. 27, subject to customary conditions. Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc. served as exclusive placement agent.

• Sirona Biochem Corp., of Vancouver, British Columbia, disclosed a nonbrokered private placement of up to 27 million units at 10 cents each for gross proceeds of up to $2.7 million. The placement was led by Moody Capital Solutions Inc. The company plans to use the proceeds for research and development, operations and business development activities. Closing of the private placement is subject to customary conditions, including acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange.