PLYMOUTH ? Esperion went public again on Wednesday, the second time since 2004, and raised $70 million on Wall Street. The shares began trading on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol ESPR.
The Michigan pharma company, developing and commercializing oral treatments for reducing bad cholesterol, closed on the second day where it started, at $14 a share. Prior to the IPO, the new Esperion had already raised $57 million in venture capital.
The original Esperion went public in 2000, raising $138 million, and was acquired by Pfizer Inc. for $1.3 billion in 2004. But when Pfizer closed its Ann Arbor laboratories in 2007, it also stopped working on the drugs that Esperion had been developing.
In 2008, Roger Newton – part of the team that developed the blockbuster cholesterol drug Lipitor, and developer of the drug Esperion has been developing – raised $22 million to buy back the intellectual property from Pfizer and re-launched Esperion.
The new drug aims to lower bad cholesterol without the side effects, including muscle weakness, that some patients experience with Lipitor and other statin drugs.
Newton stepped down as CEO of the second Esperion in January, when Tim Mayleben, who had been the original Esperion?s CFO and COO, was hired to lead the new Esperion.
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. were joint book-running managers for the offering. JMP Securities LLC and Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. Inc. were co-managers.
Esperion stock spiked as high as $17 Wednesday before closing at $14.50.
