Israeli company RedHill Biopharma Ltd. (Nasdaq: RDHL); TASE: RDHL) has raised $12.5 million on Nasdaq. RedHill was listed in the US in late 2012, and this is the company’s second significant offering since that time. Wells Fargo Securities was lead book-running manager for the offering, with Roth Capital Partners acting as joint book-running manager, and MLV & Co acting as co-manager. The offering price was $12.5 per American Depository Shares (ADSs), each representing ten ordinary shares. This is a 15% discount on the company’s Nasdaq closing price on Monday, the day before the offering. RedHill’s share price dropped 13.8% on the Nasdaq, to 21% less than the offering price.
RedHill trades on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange at a market cap of NIS 438 million. One year ago, RedHill raised $11.7 million in a private offering in the US, in which OrbiMed Advisors LLC participated. RedHill develops drugs with new delivery methods, new platforms, and new combinations of existing drugs, and the company’s drugs therefore often pass shortened drug-licensing procedures. The company’s lead drugs in terms of progress are a drug to prevent nausea in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and a migraine-treatment drug. Both were submitted for approval to the European regulatory authorities, and the company is in talks to submit them for US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval as well. The company’s most promising drug in terms of potential market is a new combined antibiotic drug for the treatment of Chrohn’s disease, which is currently in Phase III clinical trials in the US.
The company recently announced that, following a meeting with the FDA, it was decided to alter the trial protocols slightly, to include patients who are classified as “medium,” and thus to expand the pool of potentially relevant trial patients. The end date for the trial has not been published. The trial has undergone a number of changes, because it has not yet been decided whether only patients in whom the bacteria has been identified will be included (using a new test, developed by RedHill), or all patients. According to recent statements, the FDA will assess the test over the course of a year. Another RedHill drug of significance is a new combined antibiotic for the treatment of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), which causes ulcers. This drug is also currently in Phase III clinical trials, and results are expected in the second quarter of 2015. Phase III trial results for a gastroenteritis and gastritis treatment drug are also expected in the second quarter of this year.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 11, 2015
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