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ZURICH, July 11 (Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Idorsia's Chief Executive Jean-Paul Clozel on Wednesday accelerated fundraising for his drug pipeline, reaping around 505 million Swiss francs ($509 million) by selling new shares and convertible bonds.
Clozel had told Reuters this year he would likely wait until next year to outline plans to augment the roughly $1 billion he has after spinning Idorsia off from Actelion, which he sold in 2018 to Johnson & Johnson.
"“You will hear next year, this year is very unlikely,” he said in an interview in May, adding he preferred to negotiate when he had sufficient reserves, before he drained his cash.
He opted to head to the markets quickly, to raise proceeds of 305 million francs from the sale of 11.9 million new shares, priced at 25.62 francs per share, and 200 million francs from the sale of six-year bonds convertible into shares at a price of 33.95 francs per share.
The shares were sold at a roughly 5 percent discount to Idorsia's current price of 26.92 francs.
Clozel and his wife, Chief Scientific Officer Martine Clozel, bought 28.4 percent of both the shares and bonds to maintain their current ownership in Idorsia. ($1 = 0.9922 Swiss francs) (Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Michael Shields)