Equillium, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQ), a clinical-stage biotechnology company leveraging a deep understanding of immunobiology to develop novel therapeutics to treat severe autoimmune and inflammatory disorders, today announced that its Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of up to $7.5 million of shares of the Company’s common stock.
“The share repurchase program demonstrates our belief in the intrinsic value and potential of Equillium and underscores our commitment to generating long-term value for our stockholders,” said Bruce Steel, chief executive officer at Equillium. “We believe that Equillium stock represents an attractive investment opportunity and this repurchase program does not meaningfully affect our cash runway which remains into 2025 based on our current operating plan. The program gives us the flexibility to opportunistically repurchase shares while maintaining capital expected to fund our clinical development efforts through multiple milestones between now and the end of 2024, including topline data from our study of EQ101 in alopecia areata and, importantly, Ono’s decision regarding exercising its option to acquire itolizumab.”
Repurchases may be made from time to time on the open market or through privately negotiated transactions. The timing of any repurchase, the number of shares repurchased, and the prices paid for the shares under the program will depend on general business and market conditions, the trading price of Equillium’s common stock and corporate and regulatory limitations. The share repurchase program is authorized through the end of 2024 and does not obligate Equillium to acquire any or a specific dollar amount or number of shares and may be extended, modified, or discontinued at any time. The company had approximately 34.6 million shares of common stock outstanding as of August 1, 2023.
