Ritter Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: RTTR) is the latest company to join in on the wave of initial public offerings. In fact, there were 14 or 15 deals on deck to price this week alone. With the Nasdaq and other indexes effectively at all-time highs, what else would you expect?

Ritter refers to itself as a pharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutic products that modulate the human gut microbiome. Its aim is to treat gastrointestinal diseases with its lead product, RP-G28, which is being developed for the treatment of lactose intolerance.

The company sold some 4 million shares of common stock at a price of $5.00 per share, raising $20 million in gross proceeds.

What investors need to consider here is that Ritter had a hard time getting this deal done. Renaissance Capital noted that Ritter lowered its proposed offering price, as it had previously filed to offer about 1.82 million shares in a price range of $10.00 to $12.00 per share. The firm also reported that insiders still intend to invest up to $5 million in the offering.

All of the common stock is being offered by Ritter itself, so the company is getting to use its funds rather than just sending it back to insiders or holders.

Aegis Capital was the sole book-running manager for the offering, while other underwriters were Chardan Capital Markets as the lead manager and Barrington Research as co-manager for this public offering. Ritter granted the underwriters a 45-day option to purchase up to 600,000 additional shares of common stock to cover overallotments.

Ritter shares began trading around 11:15 a.m. Eastern Time, but shares were last seen trading at $4.75, down about 5%, on volume of about 1.1 million shares.

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