Boulder’s ARCA Biopharma files for $15M in new stock offer 

BOULDER — ARCA Biopharma Inc. (Nasdaq: ABIO) stock sank nearly a quarter Thursday morning after it announced it would sell an additional $15 million in stock to fund the final phase of its flagship drug candidate.

In filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday, the Boulder-based pharmaceutical company said it plans to sell additional stock and warrants through a brokerage within the next six months. 

ARCA has yet to price the new stock, but used its Feb. 25 closing price of $4.15 as a benchmark in the filings. At that price, the company would add just over 3.61 million shares to its 1.59 million in shares outstanding.

ARCA’s focus is on Gencaro, a gene therapy targeting patients with irregular heartbeats caused by atrial fibrillation. While it plans to use the proceeds to start Gencaro’s pivotal Phase III clinical trials, it would likely need an additional capital raise to see the trial through to completion.

“Even if we can begin enrolling patients, we expect to have to raise significant additional capital to continue enrollment. If we are not able to obtain financing in the future or on acceptable terms, we may have to terminate the clinical trial early,” the company said in its filing.

ARCA investors hammered the stock in early trading Thursday on fears the stock’s value would be heavily diluted by the offer. ARCA stock dropped 23.1 percent to $3.26 as its trading volume for the day increased by 33 percent over its historical average.

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