Novacea files for $75 million IPO

By Angela McDaniels

Seattle, Feb. 10 - Novacea Inc. filed for a $75 million initial public offering of common stock in a S-1 registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not been determined.

Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. and Credit Suisse Securities LLC are joint bookrunners, with Pacific Growth Equities LLC and HSBC Securities Inc. as co-managers.

Novacea is a development-stage biopharmaceutical company based in South San Francisco, Calif., that in-licenses, develops and commercializes therapies for the treatment of cancer and products that may reduce the toxicities associated with current treatements.

Novacea's in-licensed product development programs include three clinical-stage oncology product candidates: DN-101 is being evaluated in a phase 3 clinical trial for prostate cancer, vinorelbine oral is expected to enter into a phase 3 trial in late 2006 for the treatment of breast or lung cancer and AQ4N is expected to advance into a phase 1/2 clinical trial in the second half of 2006 for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme.

IPO proceeds will be used to fund product development, to pre-launch marketing preparation for product candidates, to identify and license new product candidates, for general corporate purposes and for working capital, according to the filing.

The company had 45,505,537 shares of common stock outstanding, at an average price of $1.85 each, and 36,666,689 shares of convertible preferred stock outstanding at Sept. 30.

Domain Associates LLC is the largest stockholder with 13,579,279 shares for 24.1% of the pre-IPO common stock total. New Enterprise Associates is second with 13,128,678 shares for 23.3% of the equity.

Novacea had a net loss of $16.88 million on no revenue for the first nine months of 2005. Cash was $31.72 million at Sept. 30.

Research and development costs for the nine months ended Sept. 30 were $12.71 million.

The company has applied to list its common stock on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol "NOVC."

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