Apellis Follows FDA Approval by Raising $350 Million in Public Offering of Stock and Warrants

Rare Daily Staff

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company focused on complement-mediated disorders, went to the public markets to raise $350 million through the sale of common stock and warrants.

The company priced 3.2 million shares of its common stock at $63.00 per share and, in lieu of common stock to investors who so choose, pre-funded warrants to purchase 2.4 million shares of its common stock at $62.9999 per pre-funded warrant, for total gross proceeds of approximately $350 million, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses payable by Apellis. Apellis has also granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 833,333 additional shares of its common stock at the public offering price, less the underwriting discounts and commissions.

The stock offering was made one week after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Syfovre (pegcetacoplan injection) for the treatment of geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration, the first and only FDA-approved treatment for geographic atrophy, a leading cause of blindness that impacts more than one million people in the United States and five million people worldwide.

It is the second approval for the company’s lead compound pegcetacoplan, which was first approved by the FDA in November 2021 under the name Empaveli as the first targeted C3 therapy, for treatment of adults with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, a rare, chronic, life-threatening blood disorder caused by an acquired mutation, which leads to uncontrolled complement activation and the destruction of red blood cells through intravascular and extravascular hemolysis.