MORRISVILLE – A biopharma- and nanotechnology-focused company based in the Research Triangle Park area has filed to raise $57.5 million in an initial public offering, according to a filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Morrisville-based Liquidia Technologies Inc. is a nanotechnology company that designs, develops and manufactures precisely engineered particles and films for various life and material science applications.
Upon completion of the IPO, Liquidia will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker LQDA. The filing did not state what the offering price will be.
The company does not intend to pay dividends to any of its common stock shareholders.
Liquidia stated in the filing that “management will retain broad discretion” in its use of proceeds from the IPO, and that actual expenditures may vary based on things such as the progress of commercialization efforts and the success rate of clinical trials.
The company also said it may use some of the proceeds to in-license, acquire or invest in complementary businesses, assets and treatment technologies.
The company raised $25.5 million in a private equity offering in February. One of its largest shareholders, according to the filing, is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which owns 13.4 million shares, or 7.5 percent of Liquidia.
It experienced a net loss of $27.5 million in the first quarter on $925,970 in revenue. As of March 31, Liquidia had $17.6 million in cash.
In the filing, Liquidia stated that it is “primarily dependent” on the successful development and commercialization of its lead product, LIQ861, and another of its drug product candidates, LIQ865. The company intends to execute Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trials for them during 2018.
Founded in 2004, Liquidia manufactures engineered particles using PRINT (Particle Replication in Non-Wetting Templates), a particle engineering and manufacturing technology.
The company is led by Chief Executive Officer Neal Fowler and President and Chief Financial Officer Kevin Gordon.
Fowler has been with the company since 2008. June 2006 to March 2008, Fowler served as president of Centocor Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, which focused on the development and commercialization of industry-leading biomedicines used to treat chronic inflammatory diseases
For the 2017 fiscal year, Fowler received $587,369 in total compensation. That included $411,769 in base salary.
Jefferies LLC and Cowen & Co. are the joint book-running underwriters of the IPO. Other underwriters are Needham & Co. and Wedbush Securities.
This story is from the North Carolina Business News Wire, a service of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Media and Journalism
The Liquidia announcement
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.– Liquidia Technologies, Inc., a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of human therapeutics using its proprietary PRINT® technology to transform the lives of patients, today announced that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) relating to a proposed initial public offering of its common stock. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. Liquidia has applied to list its common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker symbol “LQDA.”
Jefferies and Cowen are acting as joint book-running managers for the proposed offering. Needham & Company and Wedbush PacGrow are acting as co-managers.
A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the SEC but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.
The proposed offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. When available, a copy of the preliminary prospectus may be obtained from Jefferies LLC, Attn: Equity Syndicate Prospectus Department, 520 Madison Avenue, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10022, by telephone at 877-547-6340 or by email at Prospectus_Department@Jefferies.com; or from Cowen and Company, LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Services, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, Attn: Prospectus Department, by telephone at (631) 274-2806 or by fax at (631) 254-7140.
