Probiodrug raises €22.5m in Euronext IPO

The offering was priced at €15.25 per share. More than 1.5 million shares were placed, including almost 50,000 over-allotment shares. Existing shareholders acquired more than one million shares for €15.7m.

The funding will be used to advance the clinical development of the company's Alzheimer's drug, PQ912. It will also be used to further the development of PBD-C06 and PQ1565. The neurological disorder Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia and currently has no known cure. The degenerative disease results in patients relying on others for assistance.

The company and existing shareholders have all agreed to a lock-up period of 12 months on the sale of their shares.

Kempen acted as sole global coordinator and co-bookrunner with Petercam for the IPO. Close Brothers Seydler Bank was the selling agent.

Previous funding
According to unquote" data, Probiodrug has raised eight funding rounds since inception in 1997. Initial investors were Deutsche Venture Capital (DVC), Goodvent and TBG Technologie, which committed just over €8m in June of that year. DVC took a 33% stake as part of the deal. The trio committed to a further two rounds, in June 1999 and January 2000, raising just less than €14m.

The fourth and fifth funding rounds, in October 2000 and June 2006, raised €17.3m from Goodvent and new investor CFH Beteiligungsgesellschaft. DVC divested its stake before a new round of funding a year later, when the two previous investors were rejoined by TBG.

New backers Bayern Kapital, HBM Partners and TVM Capital also took part in the sixth funding round, which raised more than €20m.

BB Biotech and Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners (EdRip) co-led a €36m round in November 2009, along with new investors Life Sciences Partners (LSP) and Biogen Idec New Ventures, as well as Goodvent, TVM Capital, HBM BioVentures and CFH Group.

The latest €15m funding round in January 2012 saw BB and EdRip co-lead with LSP, with commitments from all previous investors.

Company
Headquartered in Halle, Probiodrug is a biopharmaceutical company that has developed a therapeutic treatment for diabetes, upon which a new class of antidiabetics – gliptins – were based. Probiodrug investigates the structure and function of enzymes involved in pathological conditions.

Founded in 1997, the company now works to develop therapeutic treatment of Alzheimer's. Its approach targets toxic pyroglutamate-Abetas, which are said to cause the early pathological changes related to the disease. In 2004, Probiodrug discovered that Abeta peptides require a specific enzyme to function and is developing small molecule inhibitors to prevent this activity.

People
Konrad Glund is CEO of Probiodrug.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• DACH
• Exits
• Healthcare
• Germany
• Andera Partners
• IPO
• Life Science Partners
• Unq2015Jan