Spark follow-on bumped to $350M

Spark Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:ONCE) remained relatively unchanged on Friday after pricing a $350 million follow-on late Thursday. The offering comprised 4.6 million shares sold at $76 and was underwritten by JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Cowen. The price is a 1% discount to Spark’s Thursday close of $76.85 and a 5% discount to its $79.72 close on Wednesday, before the company proposed after market hours to raise $300 million.

On Wednesday, Spark jumped 20% after reporting preliminary Phase I/II data showing that its gene therapy candidate SPK-8011 stabilized two hemophilia A patients’ Factor VIII activity levels at 14% and 11% of normal. According to the company, “well established natural history data” show that there is no risk of annual joint bleeds at the 12% level. The product is an adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector that delivers the Factor VIII gene (see BioCentury Extra, Aug. 2)...