NEW YORK – Silence Therapeutics on Monday said it is expecting to raise gross proceeds of $120 million through an oversubscribed private placement of its American Depository Shares.
The London-based firm is offering new and existing institutional and accredited investors the chance to purchase 5,714,286 ADS at $21.00 per ADS, which represents an 11 percent premium to Silence's 30-day volume-weighted average stock price on the Nasdaq. Investors participating in the private placement are 5AM Ventures, Frazier Life Sciences, Logos Capital, Redmile Group, TCGX, Vivo Capital, and Nextech Invest, which is representing one or more funds it manages.
Morgan Stanley and William Blair are lead placement agents, and Chardan and H.C. Wainwright are co-placement agents in the private placement offering, which is expected to close around Feb. 7.
Silence Therapeutics said it will use the net proceeds from the offering to further develop its two lead pipeline products, divesiran and zerlasiran, as well as for working capital and general corporate purposes. The firm is studying zerlasiran, a GaINAc-conjugated siRNA that targets lipoprotein(a) mRNA in the liver, in a Phase II study involving people who have elevated Lp(a) and are at high risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease events. Divesiran is designed to treat rare hematological diseases such as polycythemia vera.
"The financing provided by this blue-chip syndicate of investors, both new and existing, with whom we've had longstanding relationships, allows us to advance our divesiran (SLN124) PV program through Phase II and into the next phase of development," Silence Therapeutics CFO Rhonda Hellums said in a statement. "The extended cash runway also positions us well as we continue Phase III readiness activities for zerlasiran (SLN360), and progress partnering discussions for this program."