Kitov Pharmaceutical Holdings Ltd. (TASE: KTOV), which is developing a compound drug for treatment of pain and hypertension, today announced a $12 million financing round, mainly from US biomed funds. The price set for the offering was $3.40 a share, yesterday's market price, after the share dropped 7.5% yesterday before the offering. Each packet also contained options; when these were included in the calculation, the offering reflects a 20% discount on the market price and a $25 million (NIS 95 million) market cap, after money.
Before the offering, the company had no single dominant shareholder; its CEO is Isaac Israel. The company is preparing to submit its product to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by the end of the year in hopes of gaining approving in 2017. Kitov's drug is a compound of two existing drugs in the market: a pain reliever and a drug for relieving hypertension. The rationale behind the product is that people who take pain relievers frequently suffer from hypertension as a result, but neglect to take drugs for treating this condition. When the drug for hypertension is combined with an analgesic, this does not happen.
In the clinical trial, while the company set out to show that its compound product does not significantly raise blood pressure, additional results were obtained, and the company now claims that its product even lowers blood pressure more than the classic drugs for treatment of hypertension. It is also being asserted that the compound reduces the kidney damage caused by each drug individually. The company will probably have to prove these claims in additional clinical trials even if its product is approved on the basis of the current trial, in order to use these assertions in marketing the product to doctors. The money raised in the offering will be used for additional trials, but also possibly to add to its products pipeline, which now includes only the current compound.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 29, 2016
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