Two Rare Disease Developers Raise Total of $310 Million in Follow-on Offerings

Rare Daily Staff

Acceleron Pharma and Stemline Therapeutics each priced follow-on offerings as one moves to a key program toward regulatory filing and the other moves toward its first product launch.

Acceleron raised $230 million through a public offering of 5.4 million shares of its common stock at $43 per share. The company is focused on treatments for serious and rare diseases through an understanding of TGF-beta biology and protein engineering to generate innovative compounds that engage the body’s ability to regulate cellular growth and repair. The biotech and its partner Celgene recently announced promising late stage results for luspatercept for the treatment of chronic anemia in myelodysplastic syndromes, beta-thalassemia, and myelofibrosis.

It will also use proceeds from the offering to advance its neuromuscular franchise in mid-stage development for FSH muscular dystrophy and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, neuromuscular disease, and pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Stemline Therapeutics raised $80 million, pricing 8.9 million shares of its common stock at $9 per share. Due to demand, this offering was upsized from the previously announced 6.6 million shares. Stemline is focused on the development and commercialization of novel oncology therapeutics.

The biotech will use proceeds from its offering to launch Elzonris, which received U.S. regulatory approval, as the first ever treatment for the rare blood disease blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN). BPDCN is an aggressive hematologic malignancy with historically poor outcomes and no available treatment until now. The BPDCN cell of origin is the plasmacytoid dendritic cell precursor. BPDCN typically presents in the bone marrow and/or skin and may also involve lymph nodes and viscera.

Stemline will also use the funds to support clinical trials for additional indications for Elzonris including chronic myelomonocytic leukemia and myelofibrosis, the continued development of its pipeline, and potential deals, and general purposes.

January 16, 2019