LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Addex Pharmaceuticals SA has generated a lot of interest from potential investors ahead of the company's planned flotation on the Swiss stock market next Tuesday, the group's spokesman Chris Maggos said.
The final price for the float will be set on Monday, with the range currently set at 58 to 75 sfr per share.
Geneva-based Addex is seeking to raise up to 135 mln sfr (56 mln stg) to fund trials of its experimental treatments for ailments including Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), migraine and anxiety. An overallotment option could yield a further 20 mln sfr.
The group's therapies are based on 'allosteric modulators', and work differently than most currently marketed drugs. So while high risk, the company hopes to launch new and more effective ways of treating the conditions.
The positive clinical results generated so far, and the large markets the therapies would address, particularly in reflux, have been a draw, Maggos said.
'The roadshow has generated a lot of interest. We've had trouble finding the time to schedule all the meetings (with potential investors),' he told Thomson Financial News.
If successful, the float will be the largest IPO in the pharma/biotech sector in Europe since Basilea listed at the beginning of 2004.
The European pharma and biotech sector is enjoying a period of relative buoyancy in terms of fundraising, particularly when compared to the UK. With US investors now able to invest abroad, companies on the continent are finding it easier to attract financing.
In the UK however, factors such as pre-emption rights on shares and restrictions on how soon initial investors can sell after a float, puts some US investors off.
Analysts believe that is causing the current disparity in the valuations of UK companies and their European-listed peers.
If the float is successful, Addex would be capitalised at around 400 mln sfr (165 mln usd), a healthy valuation for a company developing novel products that would be unlikely to reach the market until at least 2012.
Income is likely to be generated before that, however, as the company plans to out-license its lead therapies when phase IIb trials have been completed. They will begin in the first quarter of next year.
Addex's lead compound, ADX10059, is in trials for reflux, migraine and anxiety. It inhibits a receptor in the body which the company believes is involved in all three conditions.
The company said the GERD market is worth 20 bln usd a year, and is currently dominated by drugs such as AstraZeneca PLC's Nexium, which help control stomach acid.
Addex hopes to prove that its therapy can prompt the sphincter above the stomach to tighten properly, preventing acid from escaping from the stomach, thereby targeting the real cause of the disease.
Meanwhile, the migraine treatment is being trialed as a prophylactic, or preventative medicine. The only prophylactic pill currently on the market, Topomax made by Johnson & Johnson, can cause side effects such as glaucoma.
Maggos said Addex has not seen any safety signals emerge from any of its trials. In the phase IIa migraine trial, the drug demonstrated a level of effectiveness similar to triptans, currently the most widely prescribed class of drugs for migraine. amy.brown@thomson.com ab/jlc COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2007. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News.
© 2007 AFX News
