Shares of Candel Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CADL) saw a 30% decrease in premarket trading today following the announcement of its public offering pricing. The biopharmaceutical company, which specializes in developing immunotherapies for cancer treatment, disclosed the pricing of an underwritten public offering consisting of 10 million shares of common stock at $6.00 each. Additionally, the offering includes pre-funded warrants for over 3.3 million shares at $5.99 per warrant.
Candel expects to raise roughly $80 million from this offering before accounting for underwriting discounts, commissions, and other related expenses. This move comes on the heels of a significant surge in share value earlier in the week, which saw prices jump from $4.80 to nearly $14 after the company reported positive results from a phase 3 clinical trial.
The trial evaluated CAN-2409, a viral immunotherapy, in combination with radiation therapy for treating intermediate-to-high risk localized prostate cancer. The study achieved its primary endpoint by showing a statistically significant improvement in disease-free survival (DFS). Results indicated a 14.5% relative increase in DFS at 54 months for patients treated with CAN-2409 compared to those who received radiation alone. Additionally, the treatment demonstrated a significant effect on prostate cancer-free survival and an increase in patients reaching a low prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level.
Candel also noted that CAN-2409 led to 80.4% pathological complete responses in post-treatment biopsies at the 2-year mark, outperforming the control arm's 63.6%. While shares have retreated from the week's earlier highs, they were recently trading at $6.75.
The company also shared insights from a phase 2 clinical trial of CAN-2409 as a monotherapy in patients with low-to-intermediate risk localized prostate cancer. Although the trial showed numerical improvements in time to radical treatment and in the percentage of patients with negative biopsies after a year, these did not achieve statistical significance. The safety profile in this trial remained consistent with the phase 3 study.
Candel's recent clinical successes and the subsequent public offering reflect its ongoing efforts to advance its pipeline of cancer immunotherapies and bring new treatment options to patients.
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