Bone Therapeutics (EBR:BOTHE) and Poxel (EPA:POXEL) have started life on European public markets with a bang. Both companies priced within their target ranges, sold out their overallotments and soared in the first few days of trading.
 |
| Poxel CEO Thomas Kuhn |
Lyon, France-based diabetes player Poxel was trading up more than 100% on its third day as a public company. Bone Therapeutics enjoyed a similar, if less meteoric, rise. The Gosselies, Belgium-based cell therapy specialist was up almost 80% at one point but ticked down a few notches on Thursday. Both companies have found plenty of investors willing to bet on their development-phase pipelines, leading to their overallotments selling out.
The overallotments mean a total of €63.8 million ($72.5 million) has flown from the pockets of public investors and into the bank accounts of Bone Therapeutics and Poxel. Bone Therapeutics bagged a little more than half of the total to finance mid- to late-phase clinical trials of its cell therapies for bone-related indications. The lead candidate--autologous osteoblastic cell therapy Preob--is currently in Phase III as a treatment for osteonecrosis and nonunion fractures.
Poxel also has potential paydays on the horizon. Its lead candidate--imeglimin, a Type 2 diabetes treatment it picked up from Merck Serono--is on the cusp of Phase III. Poxel is pushing ahead with development in Asia, while looking for a partner to support Phase III and commercialization in the U.S. and Europe. The French biotech is pitching imeglimin as metformin with a better tolerability profile. If Phase III data back up the pitch, imeglimin could be used in combination with other antidiabetics.
- read Poxel's release (PDF)
- here are Bone Therapeutics' figures