UniQure looking to raise US$200m

The Amsterdam-based company announced that it had commenced an underwritten public offering of US$200m of its ordinary shares. uniQure also intends to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to US$30m of additional ordinary shares at the public offering price.

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and SVB Leerink are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. Stifel is also acting as a book-running manager. Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey are acting as co-lead managers for the offering and H.C. Wainwright & Co. is acting as the co-manager for the offering.

Although the company kept mum on how they will make use of the proceeds, they will likely go towards advancing UniQure’s gene therapy pipeline. Uniqure has five compounds in the pipeline for the treatment of patients with hemophilia B, hemophilia A, Huntington's disease, Fabry disease, spinocerebellar ataxia Type 3 and other diseases.

Just a day earlier, the company announced that it had achieved the planned enrollment of 56 patients in the Phase III trial of etranacogene dezaparvovec (AMT-061), an investigational AAV5-based gene therapy incorporating the patent-protected FIX-Padua variant for the treatment of patients with severe and moderately severe hemophilia B.

Uniqure went public in 2014 and is listed on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol QURE.