NEW YORK, Jan. 21, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:KERX) today announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering of common stock consisting of 9,166,667 shares at $12.00 per share, for gross proceeds of $110 million. In connection with this offering, Keryx granted to the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase additional shares of common stock, equal to up to 15% of the number of shares of common stock sold in the offering. Keryx intends to use the net proceeds from the sale of its common stock to fund the ongoing commercialization and development of Auryxia™ (ferric citrate) in the US, pre-commercial activities in Europe, to potentially in-license, acquire and develop additional drug candidates, and other general corporate purposes.
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is acting as sole book-running manager in the offering. The lead manager for the offering is Cowen and Company, LLC. Co-managers for the offering are Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.; JMP Securities LLC; Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated; Mizuho Securities USA; Roth Capital Partners, LLC; Brean Capital, LLC; Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc.; Maxim Group LLC; H.C. Wainwright & Co.; and MLV and Company LLC. Trout Capital LLC is acting as an advisor to the company.
The securities described above are being offered by Keryx pursuant to a Form S-3 shelf registration statement (including a base prospectus) previously filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). Before you invest, you should read the prospectus in the registration statement and related prospectus supplement that Keryx has filed with the SEC for more complete information about Keryx and this offering. The prospectus supplement is available for free by visiting EDGAR on the SEC's website located at www.sec.gov. Copies of the prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus may also be obtained from the offices of J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717 (telephone: 866-803-9204).
This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor will there be any sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or other jurisdiction.
About Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.
Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, headquartered in New York, is focused on bringing innovative therapies to market for patients with renal disease. The Company launched its first FDA-approved product, Auryxia, in the United States in December 2014. In January 2014, ferric citrate was approved for the treatment of patients with all stages of CKD in Japan, where it is being marketed as Riona® by Keryx's Japanese partner, Japan Tobacco Inc. and Torii Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. For more information about Keryx, please visit www.keryx.com.
Cautionary Statement
Some of the statements included in this press release, particularly those regarding the commercialization and subsequent clinical development of Auryxia, may be forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. For those statements, we claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Among the factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially are the following: whether Auryxia will be successfully launched and marketed in the U.S.; whether Riona® will be successfully marketed by our Japanese partner, Japan Tobacco, Inc. and Torii Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd; the risk that the EMA may not concur with our interpretation of our registration studies in ESRD and non-dialysis dependent chronic kidney disease, supportive data, conduct of the studies, or any other part of our MAA submission and could ultimately deny approval of the MAA; the risk that we may not be successful in the development of ferric citrate for the treatment of iron deficiency anemia in non-dialysis chronic kidney disease patients; and other risk factors identified from time to time in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements set forth in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release. We do not undertake to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the date hereof. This press release and prior releases are available at http://www.keryx.com. The information found on our website is not incorporated by reference into this press release and is included for reference purposes only.