Bellerophon Therapeutics (NSDQ:BLPH) said yesterday that it inked a $3 million direct offering of common stock with a single, unnamed institutional investor. The offering is expected to close by the beginning of next week.

Warren, N.J.-based Bellerophon plans to issue 2 million registered shares of common stock at $1.50 apiece in connection with the offering.

In a private placement, the company said it will also issue warrants to purchase up to 1 million shares of common stock. For each share of common stock purchased in the direct offering, such investor in a private placement will receive an unregistered warrant to purchase 0.50 share of common stock.

The warrants have an exercise price of $1.50 per share and will be exercisable 6 months after the issue date, according to Bellerophon.

The company said it plans to use the offering’s net proceeds for general corporate purposes, including expenses relating to manufacturing and clinical trials.

In April, Bellerophon presented data for its INOpulse nitric oxide device in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension at the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation’s annual meeting.

Researchers studied the effects of pulsed inhaled nitric oxide, delivered by the INOpulse device in 10 patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension both before and after exercise.

Patients who received inhaled nitric oxide consistently improved in regards to “at rest” measurements of pulmonary arterial pressure, cardiac index, RV stroke work index and effective compliance. Researchers said this trend was preserved with exercise when compared to patients who did not receive inhaled nitric oxide.