US-Israeli biopharmaceutical start-up Medgenics Inc. raised a gross ₤3.3 million in its IPO on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) on Thursday at a company value of ₤10.4 million, after money. The company offered 104.1 million shares at ₤0.10 per share. Trading in the share will begin on Tuesday under the ticker "MEDG".
Medgenics is registered in the US and has its R&D center in Carmiel, in the lower Galilee.
Medgenics said that proceeds from the offering would be used to fund its second clinical trial, the Phase I/II proof of concept study of its lead sustained-release protein therapy product "Epodure" in anemia patients, as well as further development and testing of its Biopump platform technology and products. The company's second product, Infradure is designed to produce interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) on a sustained basis to treat hepatitis C.
Blomfield Corporate Finance Ltd was the nominated adviser (nomad) for the IPO and SVS Securities plc was the broker. The company said that US, UK, and Israeli institutional investors bought shares.
Medgenics is developing a unique platform technology called a “Biopump” - a toothpick-sized protein “factory” derived from patients’ own tissue that enables patients to produce therapeutic proteins in their own bodies for the long-term treatment of a range of chronic diseases, initially focusing on anemia, hepatitis C and haemophilia.
The company believes that the Biopump treatment is a major advance over the current method of treating these diseases, which involves frequent and often uncomfortable protein injections involving the risks of repeated cycles of overdose and underdose. In providing a sustained source of the patients’ own protein in the patient within the therapeutic range, the company believes it has potential to capture share in the large and growing protein therapy market, which is forecast to reach $87 billion by 2010.
Medgenics president and CEO Dr. Andrew Pearlman founded the company in 2000. The company has raised $25 million from Israel Angels Management Ltd., Koor Corporate Venture Capital, Aurum Ventures MKI Ltd., Alta Partners, Alta Berkeley Venture Partners, and $1.1 million from the Office of the Chief Scientist, among others.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 2, 2007
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