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Foundation Medicine Shares Soar in First Day of Public Trading

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Shares of Foundation Medicine soared in their debut on the Nasdaq Global Select Market this morning.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based cancer genomics analysis firm said after the close of the market yesterday that it had launched its initial public offering of about 5.9 million shares at $18 per share.

In early Wednesday trade, the stock was up around 80 percent at $32.31.

The $18 share price had exceeded the $14 to $16 price range that the firm had previously estimated.

Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Securities are joint book-running managers on the offering, while Leerink Swann and Sanford Bernstein & Co. are co-managers. Foundation has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 883,333 shares of its common stock at the public offering price, before underwriting discounts.

If the over-allotment option is exercised in full, Foundation Medicine would realize gross proceeds of around $121.9 million from the offering.

When it filed to go public in July, it said that it intended to raise up to $86.3 million.

The company's completion of its IPO follows other IPOs from Cancer Genetics, NanoString Technologies, Intrexon, and Cellular Dynamics. Additionally, earlier this week, Biocept, Veracyte, and Evogene all filed to go public.

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