Amylyx secures US$175m for GLP-1 push
Amylyx Pharmaceuticals reinvigorated its balance sheet with an upsized US$175m late Tuesday from a wall-crossed overnight stock sale.
Leerink Partners and Guggenheim Securities were covered at launch for a much smaller US$75m after an earlier wall-cross, allowing them to price a massively upsized offering of 17.5m shares at US$10, a 4.9% discount to the previous closing price of US$10.51.
The late-stage biotech is still recovering from a failed Phase III trial for its once-promising amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) drug in April last year, its shares trading as high as US$41.93 in 2023.
Amylyx is on the verge of a comeback with its shares closing Wednesday at US$11.83, putting them up 215% this year.
To fuel its recovery, Amylyx bought a GLP-1 drug from Eiger Pharmaceuticals last June.
Instead of competing with existing GLP-1 weight loss drugs developed by Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, Amylyx is seeking new areas for development.
Amylx is currently enrolling patients for a Phase III trial testing GLP-1s ability to treat low-blood sugar after gastric bypass surgery with initial results expected by the middle of next year.
The biotech also finished a Phase II trial on a second drug in patients with Wolfram syndrome, a rare type of diabetes that causes vision loss and is often fatal by the age of 35, and is currently working with the FDA on designing a Phase III trial.
Despite its initial failure, Amylyx has not given up on the ALS community. The biotech has a new ALS drug in a Phase I trial with initial findings expected later this year.
Including the US$180.8m of cash held at the end of June, it has enough cash to last until the end of next year, and into 2027.