AVEO Pharmaceuticals Inc. priced an underwritten public offering of 30 million shares at 50 cents apiece to raise $15 million in gross proceeds.

Piper Jaffray & Co. is acting as the sole book runner for the offering, which is expected to close March 31, and the underwriter has an option to buy up to an additional 4.5 million of the shares offered.

AVEO plans to use the proceeds for working capital and general corporate purposes, which include the development and precommercial expenses for its ongoing phase 3 trial of tivozanib in the third-line treatment of patients with refractory renal cell carcinoma.

Tivozanib is also being studied in a phase 1/2 trial in combination with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s Opdivo.