{"id":31493,"date":"2009-10-23T11:47:14","date_gmt":"2009-10-23T15:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pehub.com\/?p=53612"},"modified":"2009-10-23T11:47:14","modified_gmt":"2009-10-23T15:47:14","slug":"vc-backed-movetis-mulls-ipo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/31493","title":{"rendered":"VC-Backed Movetis Mulls IPO"},"content":{"rendered":"

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgian drugmaker Movetis is considering an initial public offering (IPO) as one of several options to raise capital needed to market its leading product, its chairman said on Friday.<\/p>\n

A stock market float by the gastrointestinal specialist, which was founded in 2006 as a spin-out from Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N), could signal an opening in the IPO window for European drug companies following a dearth of new issues.<\/p>\n

Unlike riskier biotechnology groups, Movetis already has advanced products and has just obtained approval from the European Commission to sell its lead drug Resolor, also known as prucalopride, as a treatment for chronic constipation.<\/p>\n

It plans to launch the drug in Germany and Britain in the first quarter of 2010, with other EU countries following later next year.<\/p>\n

Resolor treats chronic constipation in women for whom existing laxatives fail to provide relief.<\/p>\n

“We will need additional financing to launch this product … and we are examining different ways to obtain this financing. An IPO is one of them,” Movetis Chairman Staf Van Reet told Reuters.<\/p>\n

Movetis was also considering a further private financing round, Van Reet said, adding that its stakeholders were prepared to continue to invest substantially in the company.<\/p>\n

Belgian media have reported that the group plans to launch an IPO next month and could start trading in Euronext Brussels from December.<\/p>\n

Besides Resolor, the group has two products in Phase II mid-stage clinical development. They will start clinical trials performed on a larger group of patients next year.<\/p>\n

It also has two products in its pre-clinical pipeline.<\/p>\n

Resolor will compete with a range of mostly over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, marketed mainly by small to medium-sized players.<\/p>\n

“But it is not really a replacement for these products. It is aimed specifically at patients who cannot be helped adequately by existing products,” Van Reet said.<\/p>\n

Movetis will conduct further clinical studies to determine the safety and efficacy of Resolor as a treatment for chronic constipation in men, and also intends to develop the product for the treatment of children.<\/p>\n

Long termer, it is looking at interesting product opportunities to supplement its offering, Van Reet said, adding however that it had no immediate acquisition plans.<\/p>\n

Movetis was spun off in November 2006 from Janssen Pharmaceutica, a unit of U.S. healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N).<\/p>\n

It has the right to commercialise Resolor in the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, but Johnson & Johnson kept the rights for the rest of the world when the group was spun off.<\/p>\n

The group is, however, entitled to royalties when Johnson & Johnson starts marketing Resolor in different parts of the world, Van Reet said.<\/p>\n

Leading investors in Movetis include French venture capital group Sofinnova Partners and Life Sciences Partners of the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

By Antonia van de Velde
\n(Editing by Ben Hirschler and Mike Nesbit)<\/em><\/p>\n

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BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgian drugmaker Movetis is considering an initial public offering (IPO) as one of several options to raise capital needed to market its leading product, its chairman said on Friday. A stock market float by the gastrointestinal specialist, which was founded in 2006 as a spin-out from Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N), could signal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31493\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}