Kythera cashes in on FDA backing with $125m offering
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
California's Kythera Biopharmaceuticals has announced a public offering of 2.6 million shares of its common stock at $48 per share, hoping to raise $125m on the back of a positive FDA panel briefing for the company's chin fat drug ATX-101. The company plans to use the cash to fund ongoing development and potential commercialization of ATX-101, a purified synthetic version of deoxycholic acid, a naturally occurring molecule in the body that aids in the breakdown of dietary fat. The FDA's dermatology panel voted unanimously earlier this month that the drug, which was shunned by Bayer last year, should be approved. The offering is expected to close on 16 March 2015. Kythera has been a public company since 2012.