Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 4,166,667 common stock shares at a price to the public of $12 per share, before underwriting discounts, on March 26.
AGTC is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that uses its proprietary gene therapy platform to develop products for patients with severe inherited orphan diseases in ophthalmology. AGTC’s lead product candidates, which are each in the preclinical stage, focus on X-linked retinitis pigmentosa, which are rare diseases of the eye, caused by mutations in single genes that significantly affect visual function and currently lack effective medical treatments. AGTC was formed in 1999 and graduated from UF’s Sid Martin Biotech Incubator in 2007.
All of the stock is being offered by AGTC and the company has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 625,000 shares at the initial public offering price to cover over-allotments, if any. The shares began trading on the NASDAQ Global Market on March 27 under the symbol “AGTC.”
BMO Capital Markets and Wedbush PacGrow Life Sciences are acting as the book-running managers for the offering and Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. and Roth Capital Partners are acting as co-managers.
Patti Breedlove, director at the Incubator, said that the IPO is the first of its kind out of the program and is a tremendous achievement because there have not been very many IPOs from startups associated with universities.
“It’s a huge business step and a huge step for people with inherited diseases,” she said. “The fact is, most companies don’t get to this point. They were private, with fewer than 20 employees, and now, because of tremendous progress they’ve made with their product, they were able to go public, raise money through the IPO, trade their stock and analysts are following them.”
Prior to the IPO, AGTC was one of the most successful biotech companies in Florida in regards to raising money, she said, having raised more than $80 million in grants and venture capital funds. The new funds from the IPO will go toward advancing new trials and passing regulatory milestones with the FDA.
The Business Report will reach out to AGTC for comment once the IPO’s 25-day quiet period ends on April 21.
