BUZZ - Vir Biotechnology shares plummet after $150 million stock sale

November 13 - ** Vir Biotechnology (VIR.O) shares plunged 15.7% premarket to $10.22 after the company priced a $150 million follow-on offering overnight

** On Thursday evening, VIR announced (link) that it will issue 15 million shares at $10 per share, a 17.5% discount to the last closing price

** Leerink, Morgan Stanley, and Evercore served as joint book-running managers for this offering

** On Monday, VIR shares surged nearly 12%, closing at $13.64 after the company said its chronic hepatitis D (CHD) therapy met the primary endpoint in a Phase III clinical trial (link)

** Last month, the company signed a licensing agreement worth up to $1.9 billion with Gilead (GILD.O) for three candidate drugs targeting specific solid tumor-associated antigens (link)

** According to the prospectus, VIR plans to use the net proceeds from this offering to fund commercial pre-launch activities for its CHD program, invest in its T-cell engager (TCE) oncology platform, and for other purposes (link)

** Headquartered in San Francisco, California, VIR currently has approximately 171.3 million shares outstanding; as of Thursday, its share price has doubled year-to-date

** According to LSEG data, all nine analysts covering the stock have a bullish rating, with a median target price of $23

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