Pacira Pharmaceuticals prices IPO at $7, well below its initially proposed range

Pacira Pharmaceuticals, which is developing a non-opioid postsurgical analgesic pending FDA approval, raised $42 million by offering 6 million shares at $7, as outlined in an SEC amendment filed earlier today. The biotech had originally expected to sell 4.25 million shares at a range of $14 to $16. Pacira Pharmaceuticals, which will list on the NASDAQ under the symbol PCRX, also stated in its SEC amendment that existing shareholders MPM Capital, OriMed Advisors, Sanderling Ventures and HBM BioVentures have indicated an interest in purchasing $7.5 million of common shares on the IPO. Barclays Capital and Piper Jaffray acted as lead managers on the deal.

Pacira Pharmaceuticals, which was founded in 2006 and booked $17 million in sales for the 12 months ended September 30, 2010, is only one of a plethora of healthcare-related companies that have recently specified terms and timing for their upcoming market debuts: there are ten healthcare-related IPOs already scheduled to price within the next two weeks, compared with only 17 healthcare IPOs completed during the entirety of 2010. Of these 17 deals, 13 were priced below the initially proposed range.