Neuronix Ltd,, which is developing the NeuroAD device for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, has raised $5.5 million from a private investor, a year after the company called off plans for an IPO on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE).
"This is about the amount that we planned to raise in the IPO," Neuronix CEO Eyal Baror told "Globes". "With this private investor, we obtained a higher company value than we could have obtained in the TASE IPO."
Neuronix's current company value is $26 million (NIS 100 million), before money. In early 2013, the company had planned to hold an IPO at a company value of $14 million, before money, and it was not clear if could achieve this, suggesting that the current deal is worthwhile.
Neuronix is seeking to treat Alzheimer's with a combination of magnetic brain stimulation while the patient carries out cognitive tasks on a computer. Clinical trials indicate that the treatment significantly improves patients' cognition when taken together with medication, compared with drugs alone.
The company is carrying out a multicenter clinical trial with 120 patients at six US hospitals in order to obtain US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of its treatment. "If we get approval, this will be first medical device for treating Alzheimer's approved by the FDA," says Baror.
"The need by patients and doctors is huge," says Baror. "Every week, we get requests from more hospitals that want to participate in the US trial. The product is already approved for use in Israel, and a third of the patients are foreigners."
Neuronix had $500,000 in sales in 2013.
"Globes": What do you need to increase sales?
Baror: "More data, mainly, and FDA approval, followed by insurance indemnification. However, the first big jump will come without that, after we amass clinical data."
Will you again try for an IPO on the TASE?
"I think that after FDA certification of the product for the treatment of Alzheimer's, we'll go back to the TASE."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 18, 2014
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