Geron raises $90 million in follow-on

Geron Corp. (NASDAQ:GERN) raised $90 million through the sale of 22.5 million shares at $4 in a follow-on underwritten by BofA Merrill Lynch; Stifel; Lazard; Piper Jaffray; and MLV. Geron proposed the offering late Wednesday, when its share price was $4.33. This half, Geron plans to start a Phase II trial of imetelstat ( GRN163L) in patients with myelofibrosis (MF). Last year, data from an investigator-sponsored, open-label pilot trial showed imetelstat -- an oligonucleotide that competitively inhibits telomerase activity -- led to an overall response rate (ORR) of 44% in MF patients (see BioCentury Extra, Nov. 7, 2013). ...