With its stock price soaring following the release of strong data for its experimental ovarian cancer treatment, Tesaro completed a stock sale that net the company $409 million.
Tesaro (NASDAQ: [[ticker:TSRO]]) said it sold 5.3 million shares of common stock at $81 per share. The Waltham, MA-based company’s stock was trading at $91.36 per share this morning, just shy of its 52-week high of $92.48.
Last week, Tesaro shares more than doubled after the company released Phase 3 clinical trial data showing that its experimental ovarian cancer drug, niraparib, hit the study’s main goal of improving survival rates in patients. Median progression-free survival for patients treated with the Tesaro drug was 21.0 months. In the control group, that measure was just 5.0 months.
Tesaro issued the new shares as part of a shelf registration the company has on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In filings, Tesaro says it will apply proceeds from the stock offering toward sales efforts for a different drug, rolapitant, an anti-nausea drug for cancer patients, as well as clinical development of the ovarian cancer drug and other drug candidates.
Tesaro was founded in 2010 by a group of pharma industry heavyweights. Rather than spending the time and money to discover drugs, Tesaro acquires compounds from other companies and directs its resources toward the clinical trials needed for FDA approval. Tesaro acquired world-wide rights to niraparib through a 2012 licensing deal with Merck (NYSE: [[ticker:MRK]]).
