Cymabay Therapeutics Inc., of Newark, Calif., closed its underwritten public offering of common stock. The firm sold about 14.9 million shares, including about 1.9 million pursuant to the full exercise of the underwriters' option to purchase additional shares at the offering price of $6.50 per share. The company anticipates using the net proceeds to fund ongoing development of seladelpar and for working capital and general corporate purposes. Seladelpar is an orally active PPAR-delta agonist in development for the treatment of patients with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC). A phase II study established proof of concept in PBC, and Cymabay is conducting a second phase II experiment in the same indication to support dose selection for phase III studies. Leerink Partners LLC, Piper Jaffray & Co. and Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. acted as the joint book-running managers for the offering. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. and Suntrust Robinson Humphrey Inc. acted as co-lead managers.

Gemphire Therapeutics Inc., of Livonia, Mich., entered a loan and security agreement with Silicon Valley Bank for a term loan of up to $15 million, subject to funding in up to three tranches. Gemphire immediately drew $10 million upon execution of the loan agreement Monday. The company intends to use the capital to support the ongoing development of its product candidate, gemcabene, and for general corporate purposes. Gemcabene, a small molecule formulated as a tablet, is in development for cardiometabolic disorders, including dyslipidemia and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Gemcabene's pleiotropic mechanism of action is designed to hit multiple established targets that lower LDL-C, TG and hsCRP in plasma, the company said. Increased cash provided by the facility further extends the firm's operating runway beyond the projected readouts of ongoing and planned phase IIb trials and will support work thereafter to develop phase III plans. Trials are underway in homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia, heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia/atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and severe hypertriglyceridemia. A fourth trial is planned in NASH in the second half of this year.

Rodeo Therapeutics Corp., of Seattle, collected a $5.9 million series A round of investment from Accelerator Corp., the life science investment firm also based in Seattle. Rodeo is developing small-molecule therapies designed to promote regeneration and repair of multiple tissue types, an approach that has broad therapeutic potential in disease settings such as ulcerative colitis and in hematopoietic recovery following bone marrow transplantation, the company said. Investors participating in the financing include Abbvie Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments, Arch Venture Partners, Eli Lilly and Co., of Indianapolis, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC Inc., Watson Fund LP, WRF Capital and Wuxi Apptec. The money will help advance the company's program toward human trials, Rodeo said.

Sarepta Therapeutics Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., priced an underwritten public offering of an aggregate of 7.65 million shares of its common stock at $42.50 per share. The company granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to about 1.15 million additional shares. Sarepta anticipates the gross proceeds to be about $325 million, excluding any exercise of the underwriters' option. The deal is expected to close on or about Thursday. Goldman Sachs and Co. LLC and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC are acting as joint book-running managers. Credit Suisse Securities LLC is also acting as a joint bookrunner. Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc., Nomura Securities International Inc. and William Blair & Co. LLC are acting as co-managers. Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.