NovaBay Pharmaceuticals Inc. priced its initial public offering of 5 million shares of common stock at $4 per share, bringing in gross proceeds of $20 million.

The price fell at the low end of NovaBay's predicted $4 to $6 range. The Emeryville, Calif.-based company filed to go public in February, shortly after changing its name from NovaCal Pharmaceuticals Inc. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 16, 2007.)

NovaBay's shares began trading Friday on the American Stock Exchange (AMEX:NBY) and on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:NBY). On the AMEX, they closed at $3.71, unchanged, while on the TSX, they closed at C$3.60, down C4 cents.

After a slow summer in which only six biotechs made it out, the perpetually cracked-open IPO window, fall started off looking equally bleak, with just GNI Ltd. managing to price. But the pace picked up in October. NovaBay marks the fourth biotech IPO to hit the market this month, following Targanta Therapeutics Corp., MAP Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Pronova BioPharma. And even though all four October offerings priced below or at the low end of their expected ranges, another 17 biotech IPOs are waiting in the wings, according to data from BioWorld Snapshots.

NovaBay plans to use the proceeds from its offering to advance its pipeline of Aganocide broad-spectrum antibiotics, which mimic the small molecules released by neutrophils to destroy pathogens. The most advanced is NVC-422, an analogue of N-chlorotaurine and N,N-dichlorotaurine molecules, in the clinic for presurgery nasal decolonization of microbes such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Additional trials are planned for catheter-associated urinary tract infections, dialysis access-associated infections, central venous catheter infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia.

Between the data pouring out of last month's 47th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) meeting and this month's report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the rise of community-associated MRSA, there seems to be no shortage of interest in - and funding for - anti-infectives. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 22, 2007.)

This month in the public markets, Targanta Therapeutics Corp. raised nearly $60 million in an IPO to support late-stage trials of its antibiotic for Gram-positive bacterial infections, and Optimer Pharmaceuticals Inc. raised $35.9 million with a PIPE to drive ongoing Phase III trials of its antibiotics for Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea and travelers' diarrhea. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 11, 2007, and Oct. 25, 2007.)

Meanwhile in the private markets, Paratek Pharmaceuticals Inc. garnered $22 million in the first tranche of its $40 million Series H financing round to complete ongoing Phase II trials with its tetracycline derivative. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 26, 2007.)

Even government has gotten in on the game this month, with the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority awarding Nanotherapeutics Inc. a $20 million contract to develop an inhaled version of the injectable antibiotic gentamicin. And the National Institute of Standards and Technology gave Origen Therapeutics a $2 million Advanced Technology Program grant to create polyclonal antibodies for antibiotic-resistant infections.

The month has brought anti-infective partnering action as well. While Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc. waits to price its IPO, the firm signed a deal that could be worth more than $2.5 billion with GlaxoSmithKline plc for boron-based antivirals and antibacterials. And MacroChem Corp. acquired worldwide rights from Genaera Corp. to the small peptide anti-infective pexiganan in mild diabetic foot infections. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 4, 2007, and Oct. 9, 2007.)

NovaBay's NVC-422 was also the subject of a partnering deal, though not quite as recently. Last year, the company licensed rights to the drug in eye, ear and sinus applications, as well as in contact lens solutions, to Alcon Inc. NovaBay also licensed wound healing applications for a second drug, NVC-101 (NeutroPhase), to Kinetic Concepts Inc. NVC-101 is a topical solution containing the antibacterial compound hypochlorous acid, and Kinetic Concepts plans to integrate the drug into its V.A.C. System for negative pressure wound therapy.

NovaBay's offering is expected to close around Oct. 31. In the U.S. Underwriters include Dundee Securities Corp. and Dawson James Securities Inc. In Canada, underwriters include Dundee Securities Corp., Desjardins Securities Inc. and Blackmont Capital Inc. NovaBay will make an additional 750,000 shares available to the underwriters for any overallotments.