Retension Pharma Prices Upsized $45M IPO at $12 on Nasdaq

Retension Pharmaceuticals priced its upsized initial public offering at $12.00 per share, raising $45.0 million in gross proceeds to fund late-stage clinical trials for its lead hypertension candidate, RTN-001.

The offering consists of 3,750,000 shares of common stock, coming in above the 3.3 million shares the clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company had originally planned to sell. The $12 per share price hit the midpoint of its projected $11 to $13 range, according to a Renaissance Capital report, giving the firm a fully diluted market value of $114 million at pricing.

Shares began trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market on October 9, 2026, under the ticker symbol 'RTSN', with the offering scheduled to close on or about October 13, 2026. Alongside the main share sale, the company granted underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 562,500 shares at the IPO price.

Funding RTN-001 Clinical Development

Retension intends to deploy the net proceeds alongside existing cash reserves to complete a Phase 2b clinical trial of RTN-001 in uncontrolled hypertension and to prepare for a planned Phase 3 study. RTN-001 is a phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitor being developed under an exclusive worldwide license from Sanofi S.A.

PDE5 inhibitors are a class of drugs that block the phosphodiesterase type 5 enzyme, which promotes smooth muscle relaxation and vasodilation. While widely recognized for treating erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension, developers like Retension are targeting systemic vascular resistance to address treatment-resistant forms of high blood pressure.

Underwriting Syndicate and Offering Structure

The gross proceeds of $45.0 million are subject to deductions for underwriting discounts, commissions, and other estimated offering expenses.

• Leerink Partners, Guggenheim Securities, and Oppenheimer & Co. acted as joint bookrunning managers for the transaction.
• Titan Partners served as lead manager for the equity offering.

The transaction marks a fresh test of public market appetite for clinical-stage cardiovascular drug developers as firms navigate fluctuating financing conditions on the Nasdaq Capital Market.