Orthopedic drug developer PolyPid Ltd. has set terms for its Nasdaq IPO. The Petah Tikva based company, which graduated from the Xenia incubator, plans to raise $20 million by offering 1.8 million shares at a price range of $10 to $12. This would give the company a value of more than $100 million after money.
The IPO is being led by Aegis underwriters (which specializes in IPOs of relatively small and unknown companies) together with MLV and Chardan Capital. No date was specified for the IPO but it is expected in the coming few weeks.
PolyPid has developed an implant that facilitates regular delayed release of drugs into the bones. The product has applications in dentistry and in prevention of infections in compound bone fractures. The problem with the existing methods of delivering drugs to bones is the lack of blood flow to the bone, which means that an orally taken drug does not reach the bone in sufficient quantities.
At present, an drug release implant is usually inserted into the bone, but the release is usually only for a short time. If the infection persists, surgery must be performed again and again in order to reinsert the implant with the drug. PolyPid's technology combines polymers (plastic-like molecules) with lipids (fat molecules) to generate sustained delayed release of the drug.
The company is scheduled to begin clinical trials in the US and Europe in 2015 for the first and second generation of the product for treatment of bones. It hopes that the two products will reach the market in Europe in the first half of 2017. The company has raised $12.7 million to date. It lost $3.8 million in 2013 and $2.6 million in the first half of 2014.
The primary shareholders in PolyPid are the Xenia incubator, which has a 16% pre-offering stake; the Friendly Angels club, headed by Adv. Jack Eitan Kyiet, who is also PolyPid's COO (12.4%); inventor and CTO Noam Emanuel (7.1%); CEO and investor Amir Weisberg (5.3%); serial investor Arik Lukach (5.3%); and additional private investors.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 2, 2014
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