Norway’s Algeta has unveiled a private placement which is expected to raise $45 million that will be used to help promote its eagerly-anticipated investigational prostate cancer therapy Alpharadin in the USA.
The company has retained Goldman Sachs, Jefferies and DNB Markets to advise on a private placement of up to 2 million new shares and up to 1 million existing shares. The offering is expected to bring in proceeds of 260 million Norwegian kroner ($45 million).
That cash will help establish what Algeta believes would be “an optimal level of commercial operations in the USA in connection with the launch of Alpharadin”. The latter is the first in a new class of ‘alpha-pharmaceuticals’ which is based on radium-223, a drug containing an alpha-particle emitting nuclide.
News of the offering comes days after Algeta and partner Bayer announced that the survival analysis has been completed on updated clinical data generated from the ALSYMPCA Phase III trial evaluating Alpharadin in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) and bone metastases.
The updated analysis confirmed the overall efficacy results of the pre-planned interim analysis from June 2011, showing an increase in median overall survival of 3.6 months (14.9 months in the Alpharadin arm versus 11.3 months in the placebo arm). Gillies O’Bryan-Tear, Algeta’s chief medical officer, said “we look forward to the regulatory filings in the middle of this year”.
