Intellia Raises $300 Million in Public Offering of Common Stock

Genome editing biotech Intellia Therapeutics said it priced an underwritten public offering of 6.6 million shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $45.80 per share, and also granted the underwriter a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1 million shares of its common stock.

Photo: John Leonard, president and CEO of Intellia

The gross proceeds from the offering, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses, are expected to be approximately $300 million, excluding any exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares.

In mid-November, Intellia reported updated interim data from an ongoing 10-person phase 1/2 clinical study of the CRISPR/Cas9-based investigational therapy NTLA-2002 for the treatment of hereditary angioedema (HAE), which demonstrated dose-dependent reductions in plasma kallikrein. For the 25 mg and 75 mg cohorts, the deep reductions in plasma kallikrein were sustained through the observation period, which ranged from week 16 to week 32.

HAE attack rates were also measured in the dose-escalation portion of the study, with the first analysis occurring at the end of the pre-specified 16-week primary observation period, with the mean HAE attack rate reduction of 91 percent and duration of 5.5 to 10.6 months for the 25 mg cohort and 78 percent and duration of 2.3 to 4.2 months for the 75 mg cohort. NTLA-2002 was generally well-tolerated, and the majority of adverse events were mild in severity. The 50 mg cohort had not completed the primary 16-week observation period.

HAE is a rare and potentially life-threatening genetic disease characterized by overproduction of bradykinin, which leads to recurring, severe and unpredictable swelling in various parts of the body. Stress or trauma may trigger these episodes; however, often there is no known trigger. HAE affects about one in 50,000 people worldwide and an estimated 6,000 people in the United States

“We see early evidence that our one-time CRISPR-based investigational therapy may offer patients suffering from hereditary angioedema a functional cure for their disease,” said John Leonard, president and CEO of Intellia, in a statement at that time. “Based on the extended data across multiple dose cohorts, we are strongly encouraged that all patients who received a single dose of NTLA-2002 subsequently became attack-free.”

Intellia expects to select up to two doses to further evaluate NTLA-2002 in the phase 2, placebo-controlled, dose-expansion portion of the study, which is expected to begin in the first half of 2023.

Author: Rare Daily Staff