Late yesterday evening biopharmaceutical company Kodiak Sciences Inc. (KOD:NASDAQ) which specializes in developing novel therapeutics to treat chronic, high-prevalence retinal diseases, announced "the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 5,193,237 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $108.00 per share."
Kodiak Sciences indicated that it expects to receive aggregate gross proceeds from the offering of about $560.9 million. The anticipated net proceeds, which take into account deductions for underwriting discounts and commissions and ordinary offering expenses payable by the company, were not specifically listed.
The firm stated that the common share offering transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close on or about November 20, 2020. The company further advised that "it has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 778,985 shares of its common stock at the public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions."
The company also did not indicate how it planned to utilize the net proceeds from the offering in the news release.
One day earlier, on Monday of this week Kodiak Sciences announced that "recruitment has concluded in its DAZZLE pivotal study of KSI-301, Kodiak's anti-VEGF antibody biopolymer conjugate, in patients with neovascular (wet) age-related macular degeneration." The company stated that it initially intended to enroll a total of 550 treatment-naïve patients worldwide in the DAZZLE study and that it had exceeded that number and thus closed recruitment of additional patients.
Kodiak Sciences' CEO Victor Perlroth commented, "We are pleased to have exceeded our enrollment target for DAZZLE and to have recruited the study in just over one year despite the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. We are very grateful for the enthusiasm and support of the retina clinical trial community in working together with us to study KSI-301's potential...With DAZZLE having a one-year primary efficacy endpoint, Kodiak is on track for a top-line data readout of the study in early 2022, an important milestone as part of our 2022 Vision."
The company's Chief Medical & Development Officer Jason Ehrlich, M.D., Ph.D., added "Wet AMD remains a leading cause of vision loss in the elderly and real-world data show that vision outcomes are compromised by the unsustainable and intensive treatment burden of current medicines. In DAZZLE, we are studying a more pragmatic and achievable regimen of KSI-301 given once every three, four or five months...We look forward to the last DAZZLE patient's one-year visit in late 2021 and to analyzing and releasing the primary results in early 2022. The Kodiak team is also executing well on the rest of the KSI-301 development program. Our pivotal studies in diabetic macular edema (DME) and retinal vein occlusion are off to a strong start. The recent presentation of KSI-301 data at the American Academy of Ophthalmology Virtual Meeting highlighted the promising combination of efficacy and durability seen with KSI-301 in DME, a leading cause of vision loss in working-aged people."
The company explained that "the Phase 2b/3 DAZZLE study is a global, multi-center, randomized study designed to evaluate the efficacy, durability and safety of KSI-301 in patients with treatment-naïve wet AMD.".
The firm is conducting several other Phase 3 studies of KSI-301. The company noted that these include the GLEAM and GLIMMER studies, which are focusing on treating patients with treatment-naïve diabetic macular edema (DME), and the BEACON, which is studying the effects of KSI-301 on treatment-naïve macular edema due to retinal vein occlusion (RVO), including both branch and central subtypes.
The company explained in the report that "KSI-301 is an investigational anti-VEGF therapy built on the Kodiak's Antibody Biopolymer Conjugate (ABC) Platform and is designed to maintain potent and effective drug levels in ocular tissues for longer than existing agents." The firm added that "its objective with KSI-301 is to develop a new first-line agent to improve outcomes for patients with retinal vascular diseases and to enable earlier treatment and prevention of vision loss for patients with diabetic eye disease."
The firm additionally advised that it is in the process commencing a planned study of KSI-301 for use in treating patients with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy.
Kodiak Sciences is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., and describes itself as a biopharmaceutical company specializing in novel therapeutics to treat chronic, high-prevalence retinal diseases. The firm is engaged in designing and manufacturing next generation retinal medicines to prevent and treat the leading causes of blindness including retinal vascular diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic eye diseases and glaucoma.
Kodiak Sciences began the day with a market cap of around $5.1 billion with approximately 4.48 million shares outstanding and a short interest of about 7.5%. KOD shares opened 5% higher today at $120.17 (+$5.93, +5.19%) over yesterday's $114.24 closing price and reached a new 52-week high price this morning of $141.50. The stock has traded today between $120.00 and $141.50 per share and is currently trading at $137.66 (+$23.42, +20.50%).
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