VentureBeat

(UPDATED: See below.)

It’s been a long, barren summer for biotech IPOs, but ImaRx, the blood-clot company we featured here, finally managed to bull its way into the public markets. The company, which withdrew an earlier $75 million IPO and lowered its offering price on the current one, finally finally priced its IPO at its most recent target of $5 a share, selling three million shares for an anemic take of $15 million, excepting fees and possible overallotment sales.

That makes ImaRx the first biotech to make it to the public markets via an IPO in almost two months. The slowdown hasn’t stopped companies from filing — yesterday Archemix joined the list, and the day before brought us Cumberland Pharmaceuticals setting its offering price. Still, the backlog is building: Over at Signals Magazine, Jennifer van Brunt counts 12 outstanding IPO filings (13, actually, but only because she still lists NovaCardia, which which Merck bought out yesterday), the oldest of which — Light Sciences Oncology — has been at the starting line for over a year.

Much of the holdup reflects the fact that most of the biotechs that have gone public this year haven’t done well at all in the market. Response Genetics, for instance, went public on June 4, and has since fallen 13 percent. Jazz Pharmaceuticals, which we hazed here, here and here, lowered its offering price several times and is still down 20 percent. Amicus Therapeutics, which actually has an interesting technology, is down 23 percent. (Stock data courtesy of Renaissance Capital’s IPOHome.)

And so it goes, right down the line. Of the 17 biotech IPOs this year, only six — Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, Biodel, Pharmasset, Orexigen Therapeutics, Tongjitang Chinese Medicines, Optimer Pharmaceuticals — are trading above their offering price. Biotech investors are used to long odds, but at the moment, it’s hard to blame them for being a bit standoffish where new offerings are concerned. They’ll soon get a chance to test their mettle again, as the next few weeks are expected to bring Sucampo Pharmaceuticals and Cumberland Pharmaceuticals to the gate.

UPDATE: This item, which began life as a brief notice of the ImaRx IPO pricing, has morphed into a fuller take on the miserable state of the biotech IPO market.

UPDATE REDUX: So far, the odds of ImaRx breaking the IPO slump are looking pretty long. At about 10:45 a.m. Pacific time, the stock is trading down at $4.75, down five percent.

FINAL UPDATE: ImaRx closed its first day at $4.79, down 4.2 percent.

ImaRx, a Tuscon, Ariz., biotech developing new ways to dissolve blood clots in the lungs, lowered its IPO sights and now expects to raise no more than $17.3 million in the offering. (Its latest SEC filing is here.) Late last month, the company had hoped to raise as much as $25.9 million by pricing its shares between $6.50 and $7.50 apiece.

ImaRx now expects to price its shares at $5 apiece. That will value the company at $50 million following the offering. This is the company’s second shot at an initial offering, and it represents a long decline in ImaRx’s IPO hopes. The company previously hoped to raise $75 million with an IPO in May 2006, a number that had fallen to $60 million by the time it withdrew its application last December. The company re-filed this May.

ImaRx is working on a combination ultrasound and “microbubble” technique for dissolving dangerous blood clots that can lead to stroke. Its microbubbles are composed of an outer fatty-molecule shell and an inert gas, and are small enough to theoretically penetrate blood clots. The microbubbles expand and contract when ultrasound is applied, presumably generating enough dynamic motion to break up a clot. That technique, used in combination with a blood-thinning drug called tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, is currently in early-stage human tests.

New strategies for attacking clots that can cause stroke or heart attacks are very much in vogue these days. Among venture-backed firms in the field that have recently received funding are EndoVention, Ekos and Portola Pharmaceuticals.