Omeros, the Seattle biotech company that’s attempting to pull off the first IPO from a Washington company in two years, took a step closer toward its goal today by updating its prospectus and stating it hopes to go public at a range of $10 to $12 a share.
Xconomy broke the news last month based on unidentified sources that Omeros was gearing up to do an IPO after Labor Day, and today’s updated SEC filing provides more evidence for Omeros’s plan. It hopes to find investors willing to buy 6.8 million shares of its common stock, which could generate as much as $81.8 million in proceeds if it finds demand from investors at the high end of its price range. The company also plans to grant its underwriters the right to buy another 1 million shares.
Omeros has been around the Seattle biotech scene since 1994. It had 67 employees at the end of May, and has no marketed products. It has spent more than $108.8 million of investors’ money from inception through June 30, according to its latest prospectus. The company was co-founded by CEO Greg Demopulos, an orthopedic surgeon who received training at Stanford University and Duke University.
The company’s goal is to develop proprietary low-dose combinations of existing drugs, and deliver them directly to a point on the body that’s undergoing surgery, to reduce inflammation, pain, and other complications that prolong recovery time. Omeros’s lead drug candidate is in the final stage of clinical trials for patients undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery—a procedure that 2.6 million people undergo each year in the U.S., according to market research cited by Omeros.
If Omeros is successful in going public, it will be the first Washington company to make that leap since Kirkland, WA-based Clearwire (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CLWR]]) did it in March 2007.
