NEW YORK — Shares of Esperion Therapeutics Inc. jumped Wednesday in their first day of trading after the drug developer raised $70 million in an initial public offering.
In midday trading, the drug developer's shares rose $1.27, or 9 percent, to $15.27, after jumping as high as $17.40 earlier in the session. Earlier, Esperion sold 5 million shares for $14 each, resulting in $70 million in proceeds.
Esperion is developing a new kind of experimental drug that would lower LDL cholesterol, commonly known as "bad" cholesterol. Roger Newton, the company's founder, executive chairman and chief scientific officer, is a co-discoverer of the cholesterol drug Lipitor, the world's top-selling drug for more than a decade.
The shares are trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "ESPR." The company is based in Plymouth, Mich.
