Dutch gene therapy pioneer raises $82 mln in U.S. IPO

* UniQure has Western world's first approved gene therapy

* Sells shares at $17 each vs $13-15 indicated range

By Ben Hirschler

Feb 5 (Reuters) - A small Dutch company behind the Western world's first approved gene therapy priced its shares above the expected range in a U.S. stock offering on Wednesday, showing the current investor appetite for biotechnology.

Amsterdam-based uniQure said it would sell 5.4 million shares at an initial public offering price of $17.00 each, netting it $81.9 million after expenses. It had previously indicated a price range of $13.00 to $15.00.

The stock was trading just below the issue price at $16.80 by 1600 GMT.

UniQure won approval in November 2012 to sell its drug Glybera in Europe and intends to start selling it as a treatment for the ultra-rare disease lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD) with partner Chiesi in the first half of 2014.

The drug is likely to break new ground as the world's most expensive medicine, with a potential price tag of more than $1 million. A high price is needed because a single dose could last a lifetime, giving uniQure just one shot at recouping its investment.

Chief Executive Jorn Aldag said in 2012 that Glybera could sell for around 250,000 euros a year for five years, implying a total price of 1.25 million euros ($1.6 million).

The company has since said that no decision has been taken on price and its IPO prospectus also said it now believed that a one-time price, rather than an annuity-based system, was the most likely pricing model.

Glybera is a modified virus that delivers the correct version of a gene into people afflicted with LPLD, a hereditary disorder that raises the risk of potentially lethal inflammation of the pancreas.

Rare or so-called orphan diseases are winning increased attention from drug developers and several products from companies including Sanofi (NasdaqGM: GCVRZ - news) , Shire (LSE: SHP.L - news) and Alexion already cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

UniQure is not the first gene therapy firm to float on Nasdaq. Bluebird Bio (NasdaqGS: BLUE - news) made its debut last June but the Cambridge (SES: E1:J91U.SI - news) , Mass.-based company has yet to win a regulatory green light for its products.

The decision by uniQure to float in the United States follows a trend by a number of European biotech businesses to tap into a deeper and more experienced capital pool on the other side of the Atlantic (Frankfurt: 98S.F - news) .

The results for the Europeans have been mixed.

Britain's GW Pharmaceuticals (NasdaqGM: GWPH - news) , which is developing cannabis-based medicines for pain, spasticity and other conditions, has seen its shares soar since listing depository receipts on Nasdaq but another Dutch firm, Prosensa, has flopped after a setback with its drug for muscular dystrophy.

Jefferies and Leerink acted as joint book-running managers for the uniQure offering, with Piper Jaffray as lead manager.