Pharmaxis sets US share price at $33

Drug developer Pharmaxis (ASX:PXS) has set the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 1,300,000 American Depositary Shares at a price of US$24.16 (AUD$33) per ADS.

Each ADS represents 15 ordinary shares in Pharmaxis.

Pharmaxis also announced that it will place 19,900,000 ordinary shares in a placement to Australian and other non-US institutional, sophisticated and professional investors at a price of AUD$2.20 per ordinary share.

Pharmaxis increased the Australian placement from the 17,500,000 shares initially planned to 19,900,000. The placement is scheduled to close on November 11.

"I'm happy with the price," said Pharmaxis CEO Alan Robertson. "The key was to have Australian and US investors under the same terms. I don't think this has been attempted before in the life sciences sector. We now have sufficient resources and are well positioned to take Aridol and Bronchitol through the next stages of commercialisation."

The net proceeds from both offerings after underwriting discounts and placement fees and estimated expenses are approximately US$58.6 million or AUD$80.0 million. Pharmaxis plans to use the net proceeds from both offerings for the further development of Aridol and Bronchitol and commercialisation of Aridol, preclinical development of the company's product pipeline and further expansion of its manufacturing facilities.

Pharmaxis plans to use any remaining net proceeds to accelerate the commercialisation and investigate additional indications for Bronchitol, for working capital and for general corporate purposes.