Aeterna Zentaris Announces Closing of $29.7 Million Bought Deal Offering of Common Shares

CHARLESTON, S.C., Feb. 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aeterna Zentaris Inc. (NASDAQ: AEZS) (TSX: AEZS) (“Aeterna” or the “Company”), a specialty biopharmaceutical company commercializing and developing therapeutics and diagnostic tests, today announced the closing of its previously announced public offering of 20,509,746 common shares of Aeterna, at a price to the public of $1.45 per share. The gross proceeds from the offering were approximately $29.7 million, before deducting underwriting discounts, commissions and offering expenses payable by Aeterna.

H.C. Wainwright & Co. acted as the sole book-running manager for the offering.

Aeterna also has granted to the underwriter a 30-day option to purchase up to 3,076,461 additional common shares at the public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions.

Aeterna intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes, which includes, among other purposes, the investigation of further therapeutic uses of Macrilen (macimorelin), the expansion of pipeline development activities, the further expansion of commercialization of macimorelin in available territories and the potential funding of a pediatric clinical trial in the E.U. and U.S. for macimorelin.

A shelf registration statement on Form F-3 (Registration No. 333-232935) was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and became effective on August 15, 2019 and the related registration statement on Form F-3 (File No. 333-253178), was filed with the SEC under Rule 462(b) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, relating to the securities being offered. The offering was made only by means of a prospectus supplement and accompanying base prospectus. A final prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus relating to the offering were filed with the SEC and are available for free on the SEC's website located at www.sec.gov and may also be obtained by contacting H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC, 430 Park Avenue, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10022, by telephone at [phone], or by email to [e-mail].

In obtaining the approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”) of the offering, the Company relied on the exemption set forth in Section 602.1 of the TSX Company Manual available to "Eligible lnterlisted Issuers", since the Company’s common shares are also listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market and had less than 25% of the overall trading volume of its listed securities occurring on all Canadian marketplaces in the twelve months immediately preceding the date on which application was made to TSX to approve the offering.