Bellus Health Inc. raised C$35 million in gross proceeds from its offering of 36,842,105 common shares at 95 Canadian cents apiece.

The offering was led by OrbiMed Advisors LLC and also included New Leaf Venture Partners, First Manhattan Co., Samsara BioCapital, Fonds de solidarité FTQ, AppleTree Partners and Amzak Health Investors LLC.

Chau Khuong, a partner at OrbiMed, has been appointed to the board of the company in connection with the financing.

The Laval, Quebec-based biopharmaceutical company plans to use the proceeds to fund research and development activities, including clinical trials of BLU-5937, a treatment for cough patients who do not respond to current therapies.

The medicine is scheduled to undergo a phase 2 study in mid-2019.

Bloom Burton Securities Inc. acted as the lead agent on behalf of a syndicate of agents, including Mackie Research Capital Corp. Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. acted as financial adviser to Bellus Health in the financing.