NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Guardant Health announced today that it expects to raise gross proceeds of $237.5 million from its initial public offering, more than double the firm's original goal of $100 million when it filed plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq in September.
Guardant said it priced 12.5 million shares of common stock at a public offering price of $19 per share, and granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1.9 million shares at the IPO price, less the underwriting discounts and commissions. The company's stock is expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq today under the ticker symbol GH, though it has not yet started doing so. The offering is expected to close on Oct. 9.
JP Morgan Securities and BofA Merrill Lynch are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. Cowen and Company, Leerink Partners, and William Blair are acting as co-managers for the offering.
In describing its goals in its original prospectus, Guardant wrote that it estimates the market opportunity for its current commercial and pipeline products to be more than $35 billion in the US, "comprising applications for both clinicians and biopharmaceutical customers, and addressing early- to late-stage disease." The company's tests are currently targeted toward late-stage cancer, but it has also been developing tests for recurrence monitoring and early detection for several years.
The company also reiterated plans to seek US Food and Drug Administration approval for its Guardant360 assay, which it believes may improve coverage and reimbursement for the test, which is already covered by Medicare and some other payors for specific indications in non-small cell lung cancer.
The company said it saw revenues of $49.8 million in 2017 compared to $25.2 million in 2016. In the first half of this year it reported $36.1 million in revenues, up from $18.7 million in the same period last year.