The timing of Biocancell Therapeutics Ltd.’s IPO has turned out to be excellent. Scheduled during the war in the north, the IPO was held on the day a cease-fire was declared, when trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) was mixed. As a result, there was no need to cancel the offering by the company with the doom-laden sounding name, and it was held as planned, and was even oversubscribed by 3.45%.
The offering was closed at the minimum price of NIS 264.40 per unit of 100,000 shares and warrants. Investment institutions placed orders for 63% of the units in the tender held in late July. The underwriters were Clal Finance Underwriting, Altshuler Shacham Management Underwriters & Investments Ltd., Leader Underwriters (1993) Ltd., Leumi & Co. Investment House Ltd., and PR Capital Markets Ltd.
Biocancell develops cancer treatments that are now undergoing Phase I clinical trials for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Biocancell founder Prof. Avraham Hochberg discovered a gene that expresses 31 types of cancerous tumors, but which is not expressed in ordinary cells. The company has developed a method for using a receptor encoded in the gene to specifically insert diphtheria toxin into cancer cells only. The product is now undergoing trials for the treatment of bladder cancer. The first trials on human bladder and liver cancer patients indicated that the treatment was effective and safe.
Following the IPO, in addition to the public, Biocancell is owned by Hochberg, Yissum Technology Transfer Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the university’s royalties fund.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on August 16, 2006
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