Neuroderm mulls several acquisition offers

drug development
drug development

The Israeli drug delivery company has a market cap of $658 million.

The share price of Neuroderm(Nasdaq:NDRM) rose 14% yesterday, following a report on the Bloomberg website that the company was considering acquisition offers. Sources inform "Globes" that the company has indeed received several such offers, and has begun the initial examination process with the potential buyers. The company's market cap is $658 million. 

Bloomberg reported that the potential buyers are pharma companies in the neurology sector, and that the main barrier to a deal now is the value. It appears that Neuroderm is seeking a substantial premium on its market price. Neuroderm has developed a unique method of delivering drugs through the skin, and its two leading products are new formulations of Levodopa, a drug usually taken orally.

Neuroderm has obtained an exemption from multi-center Phase III trials for registering its product from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The company will have to conduct multi-center Phase III trials in order to obtain marketing approval in Europe from the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

Early this month, the company obtained EMA approval for its protocol for its planned Phase III trials. This trial, with 240 patients, is slated for completion in 2018. It is possible that the complete certainty about the trials needed for approval by both agencies has opened the door to the acquisition talks.

Neuroderm held its Nasdaq IPO in November 2014, raising $45 million at a company value of $170 million. The return on the share since then is 150%. The company raised an additional $67 million in 2015. Since the beginning of the year (including the rises following the rumors of negotiations), Neuroderm's share price has risen 8%. The main shareholders in the company are Sequoia Capital (16.6%) and veteran investors in the company: Omrix Biopharmaceuticals founder and former CEO Robert Taub - 12.3%; former General Electric senior Executive Uwe Wascher, who also invested in Omrix - 11.4%; Prof. Shmuel Cabilly, an Israeli cancer treatment inventor who became a biomed investor - 10%; Redmile Capital Fund - 6.9%; and CEO Oded Lieberman - 3.7%.

Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on June 13, 2017

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2017

drug development
drug development
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