The announcement by Atara Biotherapeutics Inc. that it was raising $36 million through a registered direct offering sat well with investors.
Thousand Oaks-based drug company made the announcement after the market closed on Sept. 3. The following day the stock rose nearly 33% to end the day at $9.05.
The increase in share price continued a trend of sorts in play for Atara since its 1:25 stock split on June 20. On that day the share price closed at $8.90 and then dropped the following day by 7.5% to close at $8.23. It then oscillated between gains and losses for the next week or two until climbing above $10 a share on July 11, when it closed at $10.15. That represented an increase of 12.5% from the closing price of $9.02 from the day before.
There was no clear reason as to why the stock rose that much.
Atara’s stock price last closed above $10 on Aug. 1, when it ended that day at $10.40.
It’s share price closed at $10 on Sept. 5.
Earnings boost stock price
The company’s second quarter earnings report on Aug. 12 gave a slight boost to its stock price.
The shares closed at $7.77 that day. Atara reported its earnings after the market closed. The following day, the stock closed with a 3% increase to $8.02.
Atara reported on Aug. 12 a net loss of $19 million (-$3.10 a share) for the quarter ending June 30, compared with a net loss of $71.1 million (-$16.91) in the same period of the previous year. Revenue increased by almost 2,900% from the second quarter of the prior year to $28.6 million.
The company attributed the spike to “revenue recognized as a result of additional obligations for the expanded partnership with (French drug maker) Pierre Fabre Laboratories” as well as “accelerated recognition of existing deferred revenue due to the planned transition of substantially all activities relating to tab-cel at the time of biologics license application approval and transfer to Pierre Fabre.”
The biologics license application has to do with tabelecleucel, or tab-cel, a drug used to treat patients with Epstein-Barr virus positive post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease, an ultra-rare and aggressive blood cancer.
The application has been granted priority review with a target action date of Jan. 15.
“Atara received a $20 million milestone payment from Pierre Fabre in August, following the acceptance of the tab-cel (application), with the potential to receive a $60 million milestone payment from Pierre Fabre contingent upon FDA approval of the tab-cel (application),” the company said in the release.
Also, Atara made some announcements regarding leadership roles at the company the same day as the earnings release.
On Sept. 9, Pascal Touchon stepped down as chief executive and became chair of the board. Replacing him is Atara’s Chief Scientific and Technical Officer Cokey Nguyen, who is also joining the board.
“I believe the future of Atara is bright under the leadership of Cokey Nguyen,” Touchon said in a statement. “Cokey is a visionary leader in the cell therapy field, and our board of directors values his deep commitment to our staff and to patients as well as his expertise across the breadth of our business.”
