Amgen Inc. will declare its first-ever quarterly dividend on common stock following the second quarter and anticipates an annual payout ratio of 20 percent on adjusted net income – about 27 cents per share if it had been applied to first quarter net income. It's a notable milestone not only for this mature big biotech, but a sign of the times for the sector as a whole.
SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc. strengthened its hand in China with the acquisition of privately held specialty pharmaceutical company NovaMed Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Shanghai, for $61.8 million in up-front cash and stock and a potential $43 million in earn-outs for the 2011 and 2012 fiscal years.
San Diego-based CoDa Therapeutics Inc. raised $19.2 million in a Series B financing, allowing the biotech to a push forward with a large Phase II multicenter venous leg ulcer trial with Nexagon, its lead product for chronic wound patients.
NPS Pharmaceuticals Inc. expects to net $93 million in an underwritten public offering of 11 million shares at $9 a share, about a 2.6 percent discount over the previous day's closing price. It is the Bedminster, N.J.-company's fourth major financing in the past 20 months, for a total of more than $230 million during that period.
F-star GmbH closed on a $21.7 million financing, bringing to more than $49 million the amount raised since the Vienna, Austria-based company was founded in 2006.
Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., and Sangamo BioSciences Inc., of Richmond, Calif., have priced public offerings expected to raise more than $50 million for each company.
Inhibitex Inc. expects to net about $44 million through a public offering of 11.46 million shares of common stock at $4.10 per share for a Phase II trial of nucleotide polymerase inhibitor INX-189 for chronic hepatitis C and other R&D and corporate expenses.
