On Thursday, Shares of Keryx Biopharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:KERX), surged 6.42% to $3.98.
Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, declared that it has reached a contract to raise $125 million through the private placement of Convertible Senior Notes, due 2020, with funds managed by The Baupost Group, L.L.C. With the additional capital, Keryx has a pro-forma cash position of about $225 million as of September 30, 2015. In conjunction with the financing, Keryx will improvement the number of directors on its Board to eight, as Baupost will have the right to appoint a director to Keryx’s Board by the end of 2015. Baupost will also appoint an observer to Keryx’s board.
The company also declared the implementation of a cost reduction plan to re-align its operating expense structure. The plan is predictable to significantly decrease the company’s cash operating expenses, not taking into account cost of goods sold, in 2016 to between $87 million and $92 million. Keryx plans to provide further 2016 financial guidance in early 2016.
Keryx anticipates to use proceeds from the financing for working capital and other general corporate purposes, counting efforts to expand the utilization of Auryxia™ in the U.S. in the current indication and support label expansion opportunities.
Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on providing therapies for patients with renal disease in the United States. Its lead product Auryxia (ferric citrate), an oral, ferric iron-based compound that has the capacity to bind to phosphate in the gastrointestinal tract and form non-absorbable complexes, in addition to treats iron deficiency anemia.
On other hand, Shares of Vital Therapies, Inc. (NASDAQ:VTL), surged 13.22% to $6.51.
In the last trading session, Vital Therapies, Inc. (VTL), moved on high volume, trading at a volume of 5.02M versus its average daily volume of 494,461.00 shares. At $6.51, the stock has lost momentum as shares are down from a peak price of $29.67 recorded on Apr 27, 2015. The stock, as of recent close, has shown weekly upbeat performance of 62.75% which was maintained at -74.44% in this year. The stock is having its 200-day moving average of $17.18 and $4.00 as its 50-day moving average.
Vital Therapies, Inc., a biotherapeutic company, focuses on developing a cell-based therapy for the treatment of acute liver failure in the United States. Its ELAD system is an extracorporeal bio-artificial liver therapy that is in Phase III clinical trials to allow the patient’s own liver to regenerate to a healthy state, or to stabilize the patient until transplant.
