ASX-listed Opthea was placed in a trading halt on Monday ahead of a capital raising that’s expected to be overseen by MST Financial.
The biotech is running two large clinical trials in patients to develop a therapy to treat wet macular degeneration, a long-lasting eye disorder that causes blurred vision or a blind spot in the central vision.Investor sources told Street Talk Opthea will look to raise about $220 million, which is slated to fund the $321 million company through to its Phase 3 read-out early next year.
“We have the largest healthcare research team in the market, we do thorough due diligence on companies like Opthea, which we like because it has the potential to be the first drug for wet AMD [age-related macular degeneration disease in more than 15 years,” Satur said at the time.has co-edited Street Talk since 2009, specialising in private equity, investment banking, M&A and equity capital markets stories.
Pengana’s James McDonald is tipping into Aussie names Telix and Opthea, potash producer K+S, and the valuation case for Ardent at 70¢.