Frequency Therapeutics prices $84m IPO

Frequency Therapeutics said yesterday that it priced its initial public offering at roughly $84 million.

The 6-million-share offering priced at $14 per share and includes a 30-day underwriters option on another 900,000 shares that’s worth $12.6 million, the Woburn, Mass.-based company said.

Frequency said it expected to begin trading the shares on the NASDAQ exchange today under the “FREQ” ticker symbol. The offering is slated to close Oct. 7.

J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and Cowen are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering.

Last month, Frequency registered the IPO at $100 million, saying it intended to use the funds to advance the clinical development of FX-322, the hearing loss drug it’s developing, as well as to develop other product candidates in its progenitor cell activation platform.

FX-322 is designed to stimulate the regrowth of sensory hair cells to treat chronic noise-induced hearing loss. Frequency’s technology is based on activating progenitor cells – mature stem cells that can proliferate into different types of cells. The compound is injected into the middle ear in a slow-release gel. Frequency did not disclose what the funds from its latest IPO might be earmarked for.

In July, the company raised $62 million in Series C funding that, combined with a $42 million Series B round in January and another $32 million from Series A funding in 2017, brought its total raise to $147 million.