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Dicerna Files for $69M IPO

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Dicerna Pharmaceuticals disclosed in a regulatory filing this week that it is planning to raise up to $69 million through an initial public offering of its stock on the Nasdaq.

The number of shares to be offered, as well as the offering price, have yet to be determined. In August, the company raised $60 million in a private Series C round.

In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Dicerna said that the proceeds from the IPO would be used to advance its pipeline of drugs based on its Dicer-substrate RNAi technology.

The first, called DCR-PH1, is being developed for primary hyperoxaluria 1, a rare inherited disorder characterized by the overproduction of oxalate in the kidneys, which results in the development of stones. Dicerna said it expects to begin clinical trials of this compound in 2015.

More advanced is the company's hepatocellular carcinoma drug DCR-M1711, which is expected to enter human testing in the first half of this year.

The company is also developing a variety of drugs for rare, inherited diseases of the liver, with clinical testing potentially beginning in 2015.

Dicerna also provided a snapshot of its financial performance, citing a 2012 net loss of $11.6 million on research and development expenses of $8 million, and nearly $55 million in cash and cash equivalents as of Sept. 30, 2013.

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