Akebia Therapeutics tumbles on deep-discounted $50 mln stock sale

Shares of Akebia Therapeutics AKBA.O down 26.1% at $2.10 before the bell after co raises equity at steep discount

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based co focused on kidney disease late Weds announced pricing of 25 mln shares at $2 for $50 mln gross proceeds

Offering priced at 29.6% discount to last sale

AKBA shares rose ~11% on Weds, capping a four-session winning streak in which they racked up a 68% gain

On Mar 13, co reported Q4 results and said it expects its anemia drug, branded as Vafseo, to generate $10-$11 mln of net product revs in Q1

Co to use net offering proceeds to fund working capital and general corporate purposes, including R&D and commercial activities for its products and pipeline candidates, per the SEC prospectus filing

With ~236.2 mln shares outstanding, per the latest 10-K filing, AKBA has ~$670 mln market cap

Leerink Partners and Piper Sandler are jt bookrunners for the stock offering