Durham-based Aerie Pharmaceuticals looks to raise $275M

DURHAM — Aerie Pharmaceuticals, a developer of therapies for eye diseases, has launched an offering of $250 million of convertible senior notes, it announced earlier this week. On Friday, the offering was increased to $275 million.

They will be due 2024.

“Aerie estimates that the net proceeds from the offering will be approximately $266.1 million (or approximately $306.3 million if the initial purchasers exercise their option to purchase additional notes in full) after deducting the initial purchasers’ discount and estimated offering expenses payable by Aerie,” the company said Thursday.

The Durham-based company also intends to grant to the initial purchasers of the notes a 13-day option to purchase up to an additional $37.5 million convertible senior notes.

“Aerie intends to terminate its existing senior secured credit facility, and expects to pay certain termination fees and expenses in connection with such termination,” the firm said in its release.

Aerie expects to use the remainder of the proceeds from the offering for “general corporate purposes.”

Earlier this year, Aerie has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin selling Rocklatan, a once-daily eye drop for reducing high intraocular pressure in patients with open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension.

Rocklatan is a combination of latanoprost, the most widely prescribed prostaglandin analog, and netarsudil, the active ingredient in Rhopressa, Aerie’s first-in-class Rho kinase (ROCK) inhibitor that targets the trabecular meshwork, the eye’s principal drainage pathway for fluids. A diseased trabecular meshwork is considered to be the main cause of elevated intraocular pressure in open-angle glaucoma and ocular hypertension.

Rhopressa, Aerie’s first FDA-approved product, works by restoring fluid outflow through the trabecular meshwork, while latanoprost increases outflow through a secondary mechanism, the uveoscleral pathway.

Aerie launched Rhopressa in the United States in April 2018 and later Rocklatan in May of this year.