Nivalis CFO: IPO proceeds will fund company well into Phase 3 trial program

BOULDER — Nivalis Therapeutics Inc. chief financial officer Michael Carruthers said Thursday that the company will reap in the “low $70 million range” in net proceeds from Wednesday’s initial public offering once standard commissions and fees are paid.

After selling about a quarter more shares than originally planned, the cash infusion should give the company what it needs to operate for more than two years as it works on developing drug candidates for the treatment of cystic fibrosis.

Boulder-based Nivalis (Nasdaq: NVLS) went public Wednesday, selling 5.5 million shares for $14 apiece to raise $77 million in gross proceeds. The company could pull in another $11.55 million in gross proceeds if underwriters pick up their option to purchase another 825,000 shares at the IPO price.

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Nivalis shares climbed to $14.92 in their first day of trading before dipping to $14.77 by late afternoon Thursday.

Nivalis had initially planned to sell just 4.3 million shares in the IPO, but upsized the offering.

“It’s just an opportunity that you sometimes have when the demand is great enough,” Carruthers said.

Nivalis had disclosed in regulatory filings that the IPO funds should help get the company’s lead drug candidate N91115 into Phase 3 trials. Carruthers said the upsized IPO increases the amount of the Phase 3 program the company will be able to fund, but he doesn’t anticipate that it will be enough to get the drug to commercialization.

N91115 is in a Phase 1B safety study that started earlier this year, with results slated for this fall. Chief operating officer Jan Troha said Thursday that a Phase 2 trial is slated to start in the latter part of this year, with data anticipated in the middle of 2016. Phase 3 would then begin in the second half of 2016, with commercialization possible by the end of 2018.

Nivalis, formerly N30 Pharmaceuticals, was founded in 2007 and had raised about $140 million in private equity before the IPO, though about $40 million of that came from the company’s early days before its shift to its current focus. Nivalis as it is today got off the ground in Boulder in 2008. The company now has 23 employees at its 3122 Sterling Circle headquarters.