Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. upped its initial public offering price to $19 to $20 per share, hoping to raise as much as $98 million from the sale of 4.8 million shares this week.
The Novato-based rare drug developer, which would be traded on the NASDAQ exchange as "RARE," previously priced the IPO at $14 to $17 per share.
Based on a midpoint of $19.50 per share, Ultragenyx would net about $84.7 million, the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, but if underwriters exercise all their options, proceeds could climb to $97.9 million.
The IPO is being closely watched as one of the first biotech offerings of 2014, but also a test of CEO Emil Kakkis' vision and the drug-development industry's focus in recent years on so-called orphan diseases.
Generally, drugs to treat rare diseases cost more and insurance companies have not balked at covering those costs for patients.
Ultragenyx has four drugs in clinical trials. Its lead program, UX-001, is an extended-release form of sialic acid aimed at hereditary inclusion body myopathy. Another drug, UX-023, is a monoclonal antibody that targets X-linked hypophosphatemia, a bone disease that causes bowed legs, shorter height and muscle weakness.
In the Bay Area, KineMed Inc. of Emeryville, Revance Therapeutics Inc. of Newark, Asterias Biotherapeutics Inc. of Menlo Park and CardioDx Inc. of Palo Alto are planning IPOs after about a half-dozen life sciences IPOs last year.
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