Stoke Therapeutics plans to offer up more than 5.5 million shares of its common stock following positive Phase I/IIa data for its Dravet syndrome candidate.
Pictured: MRI images of the brain for neurological diseases such as epilepsy iStock/Nur Ceren Demir
Building on the momentum of this week’s positive Phase I/IIa data for its Dravet syndrome candidate, Stoke Therapeutics announced Thursday pricing for an upsized $125 million public offering to fund its pipeline of candidates.
The RNA-based medicines company said it is offering more than 5.5 million shares of common stock priced at $13.50 per share. Stoke will also allow underwriters a 30-day option to purchase an additional nearly 1,39 million shares of stock. Stoke expects the proceeds from the offering to be around $125 million before expenses, with the offering expected to close around April 2, 2024.
According to Stoke, it intends to use the cash from the offering to fund research, clinical, process development, and manufacturing of its product candidates, including its Dravet syndrome STK-001. The funds will also go to the development of STK-002, an ophthalmology candidate in the preclinical stage, as well as for developing other candidates in Stoke’s pipeline.
The public offering follows on the heels of Monday’s Phase I/IIa data for STK-001 in Dravet syndrome, a rare severe genetic epilepsy condition, which showed very encouraging results and caused Stoke’s stock price to spike.
In the trial, patients who took a 70-mg dose of the candidate reached a median reduction of 85% in convulsive seizure frequency at three months on top of the current treatments with anti-seizure medicines. An open-label extension of the study showed that the continued dosing of 30 mg and 45 mg doses achieved seizure reduction and improved behavior and cognition.
The FDA has given the okay for patients to receive three doses at 70 mg followed by continued dosing at 45 mg. Stoke is also planning on meeting with the regulator over a registrational study of the treatment plan. The company contends that STK-001 has the potential to be the first disease-modifying medicine for the treatment of patients with Dravet syndrome.
Tyler Patchen is a staff writer at BioSpace. You can reach him at tyler.patchen@biospace.com. Follow him on LinkedIn.
