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ARIAD Announces Pricing of Public Offering of Common Stock

^{Published on 2010-10-26 06:25:40 - Market Wire}
 

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARIA) announced today the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 16,000,000 shares of its common stock at $3.70 per share.The offering is expected to close on or about October 29, 2010, subject to customary closing conditions. In addition, ARIAD has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 2,400,000 shares of common stock to cover over-allotments, if any. Jefferies & Company, Inc. and Oppenheimer & Co. are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering.

Based on the anticipated net proceeds from the offering, ARIAD now expects to end 2010 with approximately $102 million in cash and cash equivalents, which are anticipated to be sufficient to fund its operations into the second half of 2012. This funding is expected to enable ARIAD to complete enrollment in the pivotal Phase 2 PACE trial of oral ponatinib, ARIADa™s investigational pan BCR-ABL inhibitor; to obtain at least six-months of follow-up response data; to complete analysis of the trial; and to prepare filings for marketing authorization of ponatinib. Depending on the results of the PACE trial, ARIAD anticipates filing a new drug application for ponatinib in the second half of 2012.

The Company anticipates that this funding will allow ARIAD to retain the substantial potential commercial value of ponatinib in multiple lines of treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia and other cancers by focusing its ponatinib partnering strategy on a regional collaboration in select markets outside of the U.S. The Company does not intend to pursue a global partnership for ponatinib and does not plan to execute any collaboration agreement for ponatinib until after completion of the final analysis of the Phase 3 SUCCEED trial of oral ridaforolimus, ARIADa™s investigational mTOR inhibitor, which is expected in the first quarter of 2011.

A registration statement relating to the common stock was previously filed with, and declared effective by, the Securities and Exchange Commission. A final prospectus supplement relating to the offering will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Copies of the final prospectus supplement and related prospectus, when available, may be obtained from Equity Syndicate Prospectus Department, Jefferies & Company, 520 Madison Avenue, 12th Floor, New York, NY, 10022, at 877-547-6340, and at [ Prospectus_Department@Jefferies.com ] or Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Attention: Syndicate Prospectus Department, 300 Madison Avenue, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10017, by telephone at (212) 667-8563, by facsimile at (212) 667-6141 or via e-mail at [ EquityProspectus@opco.com ]. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of, the shares in any state or other jurisdiction which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or other jurisdiction.

About ARIAD

ARIAD's vision is to transform the lives of cancer patients with breakthrough medicines. The Company's mission is to discover, develop and commercialize small-molecule drugs to treat cancer in patients with the greatest and most urgent unmet medical need - aggressive cancers where current therapies are inadequate. ARIAD's lead product candidate, ridaforolimus, is an investigational mTOR inhibitor being developed by Merck and is in Phase 3 clinical development in patients with advanced sarcomas. ARIAD's second internally discovered product candidate, ponatinib, is an investigational pan-BCR-ABL inhibitor in a pivotal Phase 2 clinical trial in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia and Ph+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

This press release contains aforward-looking statementsa including, but not limited to, the expected date of closing of the offering, the anticipated net proceeds from the offering, the amount of expected cash and cash equivalents at the end of 2010 and the expectation that such funds will be sufficient to fund operations into the second half of 2012, that the funding is expected to allow the Company to complete the PACE trial, and depending on the results of the PACE trial, to file a new drug application for ponatinib, the anticipated timing of filing of a new drug application for ponatinib,and the Companya™s partnering strategy for ponatinib, including the intention to not pursue a global partnering agreement. Forward-looking statements are based on management's expectations and are subject to certain factors, risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, outcome of events, timing and performance to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, preclinical data and early-stage clinical data that may not be replicated in later-stage clinical studies, timing and results of pre-clinical and clinical studies of our product candidates, and other factors detailed in the Company's public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Companya™s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009. The information contained in this press release is believed to be current as of the date of original issue. The Company does not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this document to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in the Company's expectations, except as required by law.