Israeli optimized therapeutics developer Polypid has set terms for its Nasdaq IPO. The company, which has developed an implant for the delayed release of antibiotics, has filed to raise $47-53 million at a company valuation of $246-278 million after money, and $212 million before money. The company's existing investors have pledged to buy at least $27 million of shares in the IPO.
According to the prospectus, Polypid lost $6.9 million in 2019 and a further $5.6 million in the first quarter of 2020. Since the company was founded in 2008, accumulative losses have amounted to $99 million. Polypid had $21 million in cash at the end of the first quarter of 2020.
This will be PolyPid's third attempt at an IPO. In its last attempt, in 2018, it planned to raise $75 million at a valuation of $370 million, but, as in its first attempt in 2014, the plan met with a falling market, and was postponed.
The main investors in PolyPid are Morris Kahn's Aurum Ventures; CHealth Ventures, controlled by Chaim Hurvitz; Leon Recantai's GlenRock; the Friendly Angels Club group; Shavit Capital; Xenia Venture Capital; and private investors from the US. According to the IVC database, PolyPid has so far raised $104 million.
PolyPid's product is an antibiotic packed in a polymer (plastic-like molecules) and lipid (fat molecules) matrix; the company's name is derived from a combination of the two. The poly-pid carrier dissolves and releases the antibiotic in a measured dosage over a period of time that can be as long as several months. This makes it possible to avoid infection in the affected area of the body (following surgery or a fracture, for example), without taking any antibiotic orally or intravenously during the period, and without replacing an implant releasing a local antibiotic in repeated operations.
The company is in the midst of a Phase III trial aimed at obtaining US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its product. The trial is for the prevention of infection following cardiac surgery, and within the next few months the company is due to start a Phase III trial for the prevention of infection in abdominal surgery. The company has additional products applying its technology in initial stages of development.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on June 24, 2020
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