National Editor
Selling almost a million shares more than its registration specified, The Medicines Co. raised $85.75 million through a public offering of 4.9 million shares at $17.50 per share.
Underwriters - led by Morgan Stanley; Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc.; and CIBC World Markets Corp.; all of New York - have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 697,280 shares to cover overallotments, if any, which would bring the total after expenses to about $91 million, said Clive Meanwell, the company's chairman and director.
"The fact that we have a solid growth story with a [marketed] product is very helpful," he told BioWorld Today.
"There's a selectivity going on which is expected in times of market pressure," he said. "We were fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time with this offering."
The company's stock (NASDAQ:MDCO) rose 69 cents Friday to close at $18.27.
"The institutions we met, which were many, were very well informed in the space" where The Medicines Co. is working, Meanwell said, and "news events of the last three to six months and projected activities in the next 12 months" proved impressive to them.
Earlier this month, the company filed to sell 4 million shares, earmarking the proceeds partly for further development of its lead product, Angiomax (bivalirudin), a thrombin inhibitor already approved for use as an anticoagulant during coronary angioplasty. (See BioWorld Today, March 6, 2003.)
The company's prospectus said it expected to pull down about $70.9 million, assuming an offering price of $18.94 per share and after deducting underwriting discounts, commissions and other expenses. Underwriters had an option for 600,000 shares to cover overallotments, the prospectus said - which, if exercised in full, would raise proceeds to about $81.5 million.
That picture has changed. The full overallotment, if exercised, could mean another $12.2 million or so, bringing the total haul before expenses to about $97.95 million.
The Medicines Co., of Parsippany, N.J., ended last year with $44 million. Adding $91 million to that gives it enough "for the foreseeable future," Meanwell said.
"I would have given you a similar answer without the offering," he added, noting that Angiomax sales are expected to total $70 million to $90 million this year.
"We obviously have the opportunity to grow from the revenue," he said. "We hope not to be in the position where we say in [a number of] months, The Medicines Co. will need more money.'"
Enrollment has been completed in a Phase III trial studying Angiomax in the treatment of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia/thrombosis syndrome (HIT/HITTS, which are allergic-like reactions to the anti-thrombotic agent heparin) in patients undergoing coronary angioplasty, and the company expects to disclose data from that study later this year.
Also under way is a Phase II/III trial of Angiomax as an anticoagulant in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, with or without the use of a bypass pump, and in HIT/HITTS patients undergoing CABG, with or without the use of a bypass pump.
Michael Mitchell, director of corporate communications, told BioWorld Today that, in CABG, "we'd be replacing heparin, but beyond that, as an adjunct to heparin, there isn't much." Protamine is used, he noted, but "it has issues of its own," including anaphylaxis.
Yet to come is another Phase III trial of Angiomax in emergency room patients with acute coronary syndromes who may be medically managed or ultimately treated in the catheterization laboratory or operating room.
The proceeds from the offering also will boost clevidipine, a short-acting calcium channel antagonist for blood pressure in-licensed last year from AstraZeneca plc, of London. Phase III trials are expected to start this year in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.
Further back in the pipeline is - nothing, said Mitchell, and that's how the firm wants it.
"We're proud not to do any discovery research," he said. "Anything that would be further back is being developed by someone else right now."