Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:APDN) a polymerase chain reaction based DNA manufacturer, closed its previously announced registered direct offering with an institutional investor of 1.5 million shares of common stock at a price of $2.80 per share for gross proceeds of approximately $4.2 million, before deducting the placement agent’s fees and other offering expenses payable by the company. In a concurrent private placement, Applied DNA also issued to the institutional investor in the offering unregistered warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 1.5 million shares of common stock.
Immediately following the closing of the registered direct offering and the concurrent private placement, the number of outstanding shares of common stock in the company will be 8.23 million.
The company currently intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital and to advance the adoption of its LinearDNA manufacturing platform.
The LinearDNA platform has utility in the nucleic acid-based in vitro diagnostics and preclinical nucleic acid-based drug development and manufacturing market. The platform is used to manufacture DNA for customers as components of in vitro diagnostic tests and for preclinical nucleic acid-based drug development in the fields of adoptive cell therapies (CAR T and TCR therapies), DNA vaccines (anti-viral and cancer), RNA therapies, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) based therapies, and gene therapies.
The LinearDNA platform also has non-biologic applications, such as supply chain security, anti-counterfeiting and anti-theft technology. Key end-markets include textiles, pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals, and cannabis, among others.
