BUZZ - Vaxcyte shares dip slightly after raising 1 billion dollars for pneumococcal vaccine development

October 7 - ** Vaxcyte (PCVX.O) shares fell 0.3% to $66.50 in pre-market trading on Wednesday after the company completed a $1 billion financing

** PCVX announced Tuesday evening (link) that it priced approximately 7.8 million shares of common stock and pre-funded warrants at $64 per share, raising a total of $500 million; at the same time, it launched a public offering of $500 million in convertible bonds with a coupon rate of 1.5%, which will mature on October 15, 2032

** The conversion price of the convertible bonds is $89.60, representing a 40% premium to this stock offering price

** On Monday, PCVX shares surged about 31% after the company announced that its pneumococcal vaccine VAX-31 met all primary endpoints in late-stage clinical trials (link), and produced immune responses at least comparable to Pfizer's PFE.N Prevnar 20 and Merck's MRK.N Capvaxive

** On Tuesday, after the company launched (link) the public offerings, the stock closed down nearly 10% at $66.70

** The company plans to use the net proceeds from this offering to fund clinical development of the VAX-31 adult and pediatric programs, including the ongoing VAX-31 adult Phase III clinical trial

** Jefferies, Leerink, BofA Securities, Evercore, Goldman Sachs, and Guggenheim acted as joint book-running managers for the equity offering; Jefferies, Leerink, BofA Securities, Goldman Sachs, and Evercore served as lead underwriters for the convertible bonds

** As of Tuesday's close, PCVX shares were up approximately 45% year-to-date

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