After reporting a third-quarter loss and announcing cost-cutting measures, New Haven-based Biohaven Ltd. said it has raised about $200 million via an underwritten public offering of its common shares.
Biohaven Ltd. is the biopharmaceutical company that remained after the original Biohaven sold its migraine therapeutic assets to pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. in 2022, in a deal valued at $13 billion.
On Thursday, Biohaven announced it had closed an underwritten public offering of about 26.8 million of its common shares, which included the full exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase 3.5 million additional common shares, at a public offering price of $7.50 per share.
Biohaven said the gross proceeds from the offering were approximately $200 million, which it intends to use for “general corporate purposes.”
The offering was held about a week after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Nov. 4 declined to approve Biohaven’s experimental treatment Vyglxia, also known as troriluzole, for a rare brain disorder.
Biohaven shares, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BHVN, plunged more than 40% the following day.
Tuesday, Biohaven’s stock opened at $8.25 per share and was trading around $8.70, above its 52-week low of $7.48 per share.
On Nov. 10, the company reported a net loss for the three months ended Sept. 30 of $173.4 million, or $1.64 per share, compared to $160.3 million, or $1.70 per share, for the same period last year.
Biohaven also said it had begun cutting costs and focusing its spending on three drug programs that are furthest along in development. The cost-cutting did not include any staff reductions. Biohaven Ltd. has about 300 employees.
Biohaven is focusing on three main drugs: one designed to calm overactive brain activity in conditions like epilepsy and depression; one that targets harmful immune-system proteins involved in diseases such as IgA nephropathy and Graves’ disease; and one that aims to help people with muscle-wasting or obesity by blocking a natural signal that limits muscle growth.
