Patheon, a provider of drug manufacturing and development services for the pharmaceutical industry, is formally moving ahead with plans for an IPO.

The Durham-based company disclosed its initial public offering plan on Monday. It initially looked at an IPO a year ago.

The IPO is aiming to raise between $19 and $22 a share, Patheon said. At the top price, an IPO would generate some $700 million.

Some 25.6 million shares will be offered in the IPO and an investor is selling another 4.9 million.

Underwriters of the offering were granted share purchase options for another 4.6 million.

Patheon plans to list the stock on the NYSE under the symbol PTHN.

Underwriters include JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Jefferies, UBS Investment Bank, Credit Suisse, Evercore ISI, Wells Fargo, Baird, Piper Jaffray, Raymond James, William Blair, KeyBanc Capital Markets and Leerink Partners.

As noted by 24/7 Wall Street, Patheon touted itself to investors:

“We believe we are a critical partner for our customers who increasingly rely on our customized formulation, development and manufacturing expertise to address growing drug complexity, cost pressures and regulatory scrutiny. We partner with many of our customers early in the drug development process, providing us the opportunity to continue to expand our relationship as molecules progress through the clinical phase and into commercial manufacturing. This results in long-term relationships with our customers and a recurring revenue stream. We believe our breadth of services, reliability and scale address our customers’ increasing need to outsource and desire to reduce the number of supply chain partners while maintaining a high quality of service.”

Patheon noted in the IPO announcement that funds from the IPO and cash on hand would be used to pay off $550 million in notes and other fees and expenses.​

Patheon was taken private three years ago.

Last June, Renaissance Capital estimated that a Patheon IPO could generate as much as $700 million.

“[T]he deal size is likely a placeholder for an IPO that we estimate could raise $700 million,” Renaissance reported..

Patheon shares were traded on the Toronto stock exchange before the firm was bought by JLL Partners and DSM for $1.4 billion.