Regulus raises $81M--with a lot of help from its friendly partners

It may not have been pretty, but Regulus Therapeutics ($RGLS) raised close to $81 million from its recent IPO and some related transactions. And they did it with a big assist from some major league partners in the biopharma industry.

The La Jolla, CA-based microRNA company--a spinoff of Alnylam ($ALNY) and Isis ($ISIS)--ran into the typical investor indifference reserved for biotech companies with no products and plenty of development risk to stare down. Regulus had to slash its IPO price to a mere $4 and increase the number of shares on offer to get out the door. But with some help from its partners, the company nevertheless managed to raise a hefty cache of cash.

First, says Regulus, there was $50.9 million from the sale of common shares, with insider participation from Isis, Sanofi ($SNY) and GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK). Then there was a $25 million placement with AstraZeneca ($AZN), another strategic partner, that closed alongside the IPO. And finally Biogen Idec ($BIIB), a research collaborator on an MS program, chimed in with the purchase of a $5 million convertible note.

That may not be the fairytale ending that Regulus was looking for when it set out with a proposed range of $10 to $12 a share, but they'll take it.

"We are excited to have reached this important point in Regulus' life," said Kleanthis G. Xanthopoulos, Ph.D., the CEO of Regulus. "With the company well capitalized for the foreseeable future, we are focused on building a meaningful clinical portfolio and realizing the transformative potential of microRNA therapeutics."

- here's the press release

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