Two biotech companies had to slash their prices to go public this week, while two more companies filed to registration statements for initial public offerings as investors continue to be risk-averse. Antibiotic developer Trius Therapeutics slashed its expected share price by 62 percent and raised the number of shares offered to complete its offering. Trius went public on Monday on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol TSRX, selling 10 million shares at $5 per share to raise $50 million.

Trius originally planned to sell 6 million shares at $12 to $14 but investors were unwilling to bite. The San Diego biotech plans to begin a late stage trial to evaluate torezolid, its lead next-generation antibiotic, against Pfizer’s Zyvox linezolid to treat acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections [See story http://www.burrillreport.com/article-2661.html].

Specialty pharmaceutical NuPathe completed its initial offering to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Market on Friday under the symbol PATH. The drug developer raised $50 million, trimming its offering price to $10 from its hoped for $14 to $16 range, but keeping the number of shares offered to the original 5 million. Underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 750,000 shares of common stock from NuPathe to cover over-allotments, if any. Leerink Swann and Lazard Capital Markets were the lead underwriters.

NuPathe is focused on treatments for diseases of the central nervous system. The company has yet to generate any revenue but plans to gain regulatory approval and launch its lead candidate Zelrix, a transdermal patch to treat migraines, in the first half of 2012. NuPathe also has treatments for Parkinson’s disease and schizophrenia in development.

Two more life sciences companies decided to brave the public markets. Complete Genomics hopes to raise about $86.3 million according to its S-1 document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Mountain View, California-based genomics company plans to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker GNOM. UBS and Jefferies will act as joint book-running managers of the offering while Baird and Cowen and Company will act as co-managers. Founded in 2005, Complete Genomics is one of the genome sequencing companies racing to be able to offer complete sequencing of the human genome for less than $1,000.

The company has already sequenced more than 200 complete human genomes since the beginning of the year, according to its filing, and has a backlog of more than 500 genomes. In 2009, the company posted $623,000 in revenues and a net loss of $35.9 million, or $386.56 per share.

Complete Genomics has raised around $90 million in total VC funding since 2006, from Essex Woodlands Health Ventures, OrbiMed Advisors, Enterprise Partners Venture Capital, OVP Venture Partners, Prospect Venture Partners and Highland Capital Management.

Horizon Pharma also filed with the SEC to raise up to $86.3 million in an initial public offering. Jefferies and Piper Jaffray are acting as joint book-funning managers while JMP Securities and Lazard Capital Markets are acting as co-managers for the offering. The Northbrook, Illinois biopharma plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol HZNP.

Unlike many of its biopharma brethren in the IPO queue, Horizon has a product on the market in Europe-Lodotra, a proprietary low-dose formulation of prednisone, for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Horizon plans to submit it to U.S. regulators later this year. The company expects a regulatory decision for its pain therapy HZT-501, a combination of ibuprofen and famotide, by January 21, 2011.

British specialty pharmaceutical Shire’s decision to acquire Belgium’s Movetis for $559 million was the only major acquisition of the week [See story http://www.burrillreport.com/article-2663.html]. The deal bolsters Shire’s GI portfolio, adding Resolor, a treatment for chronic constipation in women that is approved in Europe, and a portfolio of other gastrointestinal treatments in development.

The deal, which has been approved by 39 percent of Movetis’ shareholders, represents a 74 percent premium to its close before the deal was announced, and a 55 percent premium to Movetis’ IPO offer price in December 2009.

Seattle Genetics expanded its 2002 antibody-drug conjugate collaboration with Genentech for an upfront payment of $12 million for rights to use its technology with additional antigens picked by Genentech. The deal could add up to $900 million in development and commercial milestones if all the compounds are commercialized, as well as royalties on sales. Genentech will be responsible for research, preclinical and clinical development, manufacturing and commercialization of antibody-drug conjugates under the expanded agreement. Seattle Genetics has already received more than $30 million in collaboration payments under the 2002 deal.

GlaxoSmithKline was busy during the week, entering into three different agreements. First GSK entered into a strategic alliance with Amplimmune worth up to $485 million to further develop PD-1 targeting therapies that may be effective in the treatment of cancer and other diseases. GSK will pay Amplimmune $23 million upfront for exclusive worldwide rights to AMP-224 as well as other potential next generation fusion proteins that target PD-1.

Rockville, Maryland-based Amplimmune will be responsible for conducting a phase 1 trial in cancer patients expected to begin in 2011, as well as completing cGMP manufacturing and GLP toxicology studies that support that first time in human study. Research directed toward understanding the mechanism of action of AMP-224 and its therapeutic potential in oncology, infectious diseases and vaccine applications will be conducted by Amplimmune and GSK as part of the collaboration. In addition, the parties may develop next generation protein fusion candidates that target PD-1. GSK will be responsible for all other development and manufacturing activities and will have worldwide commercialization rights.

GlaxoSmithKline entered into a strategic drug discovery alliance worth $139 million with Five Prime Therapeutics giving the pharma exclusive access to Five Prime’s drug discovery platforms specifically in the areas of sarcopenia, cachexia, and other skeletal muscle disorders. Sarcopenia is the loss of skeletal muscle mass that accompanies normal aging and accelerates later in life. Muscle cachexia is muscle atrophy that accompanies several chronic illnesses

GSK will have an option to exclusively license each drug target or drug candidate discovered by Five Prime from the collaboration and take on sole responsibility for additional preclinical studies, clinical development, manufacturing and worldwide commercialization.

San Francisco-based Five Prime will receive approximately $15 million in 2010 from an upfront fee, an equity investment by GSK, and payments related to the research program. Five Prime will also be eligible for additional research program payments in 2011 to 2013, and up to $124 million in potential option exercise fees and milestone payments, as well as tiered royalties on global net sales for each product resulting from a selected drug target or drug candidate.

Finally, GSK and Vectura signed a worldwide non-exclusive agreement to license some of Vectura's dry powder drug formulation patents in relation to two late stage development compounds in GSK's respiratory product pipeline. GSK will pay Vectura up to $32 million in upfront and milestone payments.

Company	Location	Amount Raised (USD M))	Principal Focus
Avedro	Waltham, MA	4.6	Medical devices
Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals	Chapel Hill, NC	15.0	Cardiovascular therapeutics
Calibra Medical	Seattle, WA	35.0	Medical devices
Althea Technologies	San Diego, CA	17.0	CRO
Calera	Los Gatos, CA	15.0	Carbon capture technology
Casenet	Bedford, MA	2.0	Healthcare IT
Gemin X Pharmaceuticals	Malvern, PA	8.0	Cancer therapeutics
ChanRx	Cleveland, OH	0.3	Cardiovascular therapeutics
Sangon Biotech & Bio Basic`	Toronto, Canada; and China	10.0	CRO
TOTAL RAISED US	96.9
TOTAL RAISED NON-US	10.0
Grants and Contracts
Company	Funding/Contracting Agency	Amount Raised (USD M)	Principal Focus
Grants
Terrabon	Texas Emerging Technology Fund	2.8	Renewable fuels
Repligen	Friedreich's Ataxia Research Alliance	0.4	Neurology
Repligen	Part of NINDS grant to Scripps	2.9	Neurology
Applied Science Products	NSF SBIR Phase 1	0.2	Food safety
Sigma-Aldrich	NIH NHLBI	N/A	Biomarkers
Ilika (United Kingdom)	UK Technology Strategy Board	0.2	Wound care
Contracts
Pfenex	HHS BARDA	18.8	Anthrax Vaccine
Elusys Therapeutics	HHS BARDA	40.6	Anthrax treatment
Total Grants and Contracts	65.9
PUBLIC FINANCINGS
Company	Ticker	Amount Raised (USD M)	Financing Type
Trius Therapeutics	TSRX	50.0	IPO
NuPathe	PATH	50.0	IPO
Idera Pharmaceuticals	IDRA	15.0	PIPE
Alexza Pharmaceuticals	ALXA	18.0	PIPE
Arena Pharmaceuticals	ARNA	60.0	PIPE
Maple Energy (United Kingdom)	AIM:MPLE	12.5	PIPE
Patrys (Australia)	ASX:PAB	13.7	PIPE
Vivalis (France)	Euronext:VLS	40.0	Follow on
Teleflex	TFX	350.0	Debt
CardioComm Solutions (Canada)	TSX-V:EKG	0.2	Secured credit facility
TOTAL PUBLIC FINANCINGS-US
NON-US
M&A
Acquirer	Target	Deal Value (USD M)	Focus
Shire (United Kingdom)	Movetis (Belgium)	566.0	Gastrointestinal
Lexicon Pharmaceuticals	Symphony Icon Holdings	60.0	Gastrointestinal
Royal Philips Electronics (the Netherlands)	CDP Medical (Medtechnica-Israel)	N/A	Technology
PerkinElmer	VisEn Medical	N/A	Molecular imaging
Miraculins (Canada)	PreMD (Canada)	N/A	Diagnostics
Apredica	Cellumen	N/A	Tools/Technology
Transgene Biotek (India)	Marillion Pharmaceuticals	N/A	Cancer
Alliances
Company/Licensee	Company/Licenser	Deal Value (USD M)	Focus
Servier Research Group (Francea0	Osteologix	15.9	License-Osteoporosis
Cornerstone Therapeutics	The Cough Company (Alitair Pharma)	N/A	License-Respiratory
Targacept	Cornerstone Therapeutics	74.9	License-Respiratory
Genentech (Roche-Switzerland)	Seattle Genetics	900.0	License-Antibody-drug conjugate
GE	Intel	N/A	Joint venture-Digital health
Ion Torrent Systems	DNA Electronics (United Kingdom)	N/A	License-Technology
BrainCells	Proximagen (United Kingdom)	51.0	License-Neurology
GlaxoSmithKline (United Kingdom)	Amplimmune	485.0	License-Cancer
GlaxoSmithKline (United Kingdom)	Five Prime Therapeutics	139.0	Partnership-Musculoskeletal
Novartis (Switzerland)	GenVec	13.0	Supply agreement-Ocular
Janssen Pharmaceutica (J&J)	Depomed	10.0	License-Drug delivery
GlaxoSmithKline (United Kingdom)	Vectura (United Kingdom)	31.8	License-Respiratory
DuPont	USDA	N/A	Collaboration-Diagnostics
Life Technologies	UC San Diego	N/A	Partnership-Cancer biomarkers
Lonza (Switzerland)	Roslin Cells (United Kingdom)	N/A	Collaboration-Stem cells