Rhythm Pharmaceuticals Raises $125 Million in Public Offering

Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, a company focused on treatments for hyperphagia and severe obesity caused by rare melanocortin-4 receptor pathway (MC4R) diseases, raised $125 million in a public offering of common stock.

The company priced 4.8 million shares at a public offering price of $26.00 per share. In addition, Rhythm granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 720,000 shares of its common stock at the public offering price, less the underwriting discount and commission. The offering is expected to close on September 19, 2022, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Rhythm is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to transforming the lives of patients and their families living with hyperphagia and severe obesity caused by rare melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) pathway diseases. Rhythm’s precision medicine, Imcivree (setmelanotide), is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for chronic weight management in adult and pediatric patients 6 years of age and older with monogenic or syndromic obesity due to POMC, PCSK1 or LEPR deficiency confirmed by genetic testing, or patients with a clinical diagnosis of Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS).

The European Commission (EC) and Great Britain’s Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) have authorized Imcivree for the treatment of obesity and the control of hunger associated with genetically confirmed loss-of-function biallelic POMC, including PCSK1, deficiency or biallelic LEPR deficiency in adults and children 6 years of age and above. Imcivree is the first-ever FDA-approved and EC- and MHRA-authorized therapy for patients living with these rare genetic diseases of obesity.

Recently, the European Commission also approved setmelanotide to treat obesity and control of hunger in adult and pediatric patients 6 years of age and older with BBS. Additionally, Rhythm is advancing a broad clinical development program for setmelanotide in other rare genetic diseases of obesity and is leveraging its technology and the largest known obesity DNA database, now with approximately 45,000 sequencing samples, to improve the understanding, diagnosis and care of people living with severe obesity due to certain genetic deficiencies.

Author: Rare Daily Staff