Stoke Raises $125 Million After Reporting Positive Results from Dravet Study

Rare Daily Staff

Stoke Therapeutics tapped the public market to raise $125 million after reporting positive results from its studies of its lead compound for the treatment of the rare, genetic epilepsy disorder Dravet syndrome.

The company priced an upsized underwritten public offering of 5.6 million shares of its common stock at $13.50 per share and, in lieu of common stock to investors that so choose, pre-funded warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 3.7 million shares of its common stock at $13.4999. The gross proceeds from this offering are expected to be $125 million, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and other offering expenses payable by Stoke. Stoke has also granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1.4 million shares of common stock in connection with the offering.

Stoke had just reported positive new data from two open-label phase 1/2a studies and two open-label extension studies of children and adolescents ages 2 to 18 with Dravet syndrome who were treated with STK-001, the company’s lead investigational antisense oligonucleotide.

Data from the studies showed substantial and durable reductions in convulsive seizure frequency and improvements in multiple measures of cognition and behavior that support the potential for disease modification, which were observed among a highly refractory group of patients who were already taking the best available anti-seizure medicines.

Stoke will use proceeds from the financing to advance its pipeline of antisense oligonucleotides and for general corporate purposes. Stoke’s first compound, STK-001, is in clinical testing for the treatment of Dravet syndrome, a severe and progressive genetic epilepsy. Dravet syndrome is one of many diseases caused by a haploinsufficiency, in which a loss of approximately 50 percent of normal protein levels leads to disease. Stoke is also pursuing the development of STK-002 for the treatment of autosomal dominant optic atrophy, the most common inherited optic nerve disorder and another haploinsufficiency.

Photo: Edward Kaye, CEO of Stoke Therapeutics