** Ionis Pharmaceuticals IONS.O shares down 7.5% at $44.71 premarket after co secures equity raise
** Co late Mon announced 11.5 mln shares at $43.50 for ~$500.3 mln gross proceeds with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as jt bookrunners
** Offering price represents 10% discount to stock's last sale
** Co plans to use proceeds to fund independent commercial launches, late-stage clinical/earlier pipeline programs, R&D, and for other purposes
** It has 146.2 mln shares outstanding for ~$7.1 bln market cap
** Last week, Biogen BIIB.O/IONS announced higher dose Spinraza regimen met primary endpoint in Phase 2/3 study in treatment of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA)
** BIIB said it plans to file drug application with US FDA of investigational dose regimen
** Through Mon, IONS shares down 4.5% YTD
(Lance Tupper is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own)
((lance.tupper@thomsonreuters.com
lance.tupper@tr.com 1-646-279-6380))