BioWorld International Correspondent

MUNICH, Germany - Jerini AG went public this week in Germany's first biotech initial public offering since Paion, of Aachen, tested the markets in January.

Berlin-based Jerini expected to raise about 61 million (US$73.2 million), based on selling up to 17.8 million shares at between 3.20 to 3.60 per share. That capital would come on top of 15.5 million in private financing earlier this year. (See BioWorld International, Feb. 16, 2005.)

Trading opened on Nov. 1 below the anticipated range, at 3.10 per share.

"We're happy that the price has been stable today," Stacy Wiedenmann, director of corporate communications, told BioWorld International. "IPOs always have some back and forth at the beginning. There also were some big ups and downs in the market as a whole last week, and this may have made things more difficult for us. But we are glad to have landed almost exactly in the middle of the range of total proceeds from the IPO.

"We had 40 million in the bank pre-IPO, and this brings us up to 90 million on hand," she added.

Jerini plans to use the funds for the market launch of its lead product, Icatibant, a drug candidate for the treatment of hereditary angioedema (HAE). The compound is in Phase III testing, and Jerini expects to file for market approval in both Europe and the U.S. in 2006, with approval anticipated in 2007. The company will market Icatibant by itself in Europe, and it is seeking a partner for commercialization in the U.S.

"We have already begun ramping up for marketing efforts in Europe," Wiedenmann said.

Jerini is a drug discovery and development company that concentrates on peptide-derived compounds and small-molecule therapeutics. The firm uses proprietary technologies to identify and transform peptides into drugs.

In addition to HAE, Icatibant has undergone Phase II trials for the treatment of asthma, and Jerini plans additional clinical trials for indications including complications of cirrhosis of the liver and serious burns.

"These are very large markets, and they will require large tests on a scale that we just don't have the resources for," Wiedenmann said. "Ideally, we would work with a partner, particularly with a partner in the U.S. that has the resources to do these trials."

Jerini also has a compound in preclinical testing for age-related macular degeneration. The same compound is in development for an oncology indication. Further back in the pipeline, four additional compounds are under development for indications ranging from osteoarthritis to ophthalmology conditions.

"Over the medium term, we'll look at each drug individually, though we will be building our own sales force for Europe," Wiedenmann said. "We'll be looking for partners elsewhere, taking things country by country and drug by drug."

Shares in the company were sold as a public offering in Germany and through private placements to institutional investors outside Germany. The IPO was led by Credit Suisse First Boston and Deutsche Bank, with WestLB and Fortis Bank as co-lead managers. The stock's free float after the offering will be roughly 35 percent. The company said that current investors are not selling their shares.

Wiedenmann did not see the long gap between German biotech IPOs as a factor in the market's reception of Jerini.

"Though there is a tendency to lump biotech companies together, investors have reached the point where they look at each company individually," she said.