Argos Therapeutics is set to go public today at $8 per share. Just two weeks ago, Argos set a range of $13 to $15 per share.
According to an updated filing with the SEC earlier this week, Argos was seeking to raise $73.312.500. But at the share price disclosed Friday morning, Argos will raise some $45 million. It is offering 5.6 million shares, an increase from recent plans to offer 4.25 million.
Another 843,750 shares are available to underwriters.
Argos will trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol ARGS.
Piper Jaffray & Co., Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, JMP Securities and Needham & Company were involved in the IPO process.
NephroGenex, which is based in RTP, had been expected to go public this week as well.
Square 1 Bank also is in the IPO queue.
The region’s IPO list of firms located in the Triangle or with substantial operations in the region for 2013 was impressive:
- LipoScience, $75 million
- Chimerix, $107 million
- Intrexon, $160 million
- Heat Biologics, $26 million
- Regado Bioscience, $43 million
- ChannelAdvisor, $80 million
- CommScope, $577 million
- Aerie, $68 million
- Quintiles, nearly $1 billion
Argos, a Durham-based cancer immunotherapy company, had plans to offer shares to the public in the range of $13 to $15 per share, according to a filing two weeks ago.
The midpoint price of $14 per share gave Argos a $247 million valuation. The company would have raised just shy of $60 million from selling 4.25 million shares in the stock offering.
It’s the second IPO attempt from Argos, which first filed to go public in 2011 before withdrawing those plans in 2012 citing market conditions. Argos filed new IPO plans in December. Argos plans to use funds from the IPO to pay for late-stage clinical trials of an experimental kidney cancer treatment, called AGS-003. The company has developed an immunotherapy technology that works by prompting the body’s immune system to fight disease. Metastatic renal cell carcinoma, the most common form of kidney cancer, is Argos’ first disease target. Following phase II trials testing the Argos immunotherapy along with Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) drug Sutent, the company reported an increase in the median overall survival of cancer patients treated with the combination compared to patients treated with Sutent alone or with other therapies.
The phase III trial will also test AGS-003 in combination with Sutent in patients with renal cell carcinoma. Clinical trial enrollment is already underway. Argos expects to complete enrollment in the second half of the year. Overall survival data is expected in the first half of 2016.
Argos has applied to trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol “ARGS.”
