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Swiss biotech AC Immune taps U.S. IPO to fund Alzheimer's drugs
(Fixes date)
June 1 (Reuters) - Switzerland's AC Immune, which already has money in hand from Roche for its most advanced drug, is planning a share sale in the United States to raise up to $50 million for separate drug candidates targeting Alzheimer's disease.
The company, run by former Nestle (VTX: NESN.VX - news) global research head Andrea Pfeifer, joins other European biotech firms that have opted to list in New York to tap the deeper pool of capital available in the United States and the presence of more specialist investors.
British cancer immunotherapy firm Adaptimmune also opted for a Nasdaq (NasdaqGS: NDAQ - news) listing last year, while cannabis drugmaker GW Pharmaceuticals (LSE: GWP.L - news) and French allergy company DBV Technologies have both had successful U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . offerings.
AC Immune a decade ago licensed its investigational medicine crenezumab to Roche to target protein plaques found in brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease. The drug has now moved into final-stage Phase III trials.
With (Other OTC: WWTH - news) money from Roche largely financing those development efforts, AC Immune plans to use proceeds from its U.S. share sale to develop separate products targeting Alzheimer's disease, according to its SEC filing.
The group also raised $43.5 million last month in a private financing backed by certain institutional and existing shareholders.
A portion of money raised in the IPO will go to fund AC Immune's share of costs for Phase II trials of ACI-35, a tau vaccine on which it is collaborating with Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ - news) .
Another portion is destined to be spent on further development of AC Immune's ACI-24 for Alzheimer's and for people with the genetic disease Down syndrome.
Pfeifer told Reuters last year the company, which is backed by German billionaire Dietmar Hopp, was mulling the option of an IPO.
AC Immune aims to list its common stock on the Nasdaq under the symbol "ACIU." It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) told the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission in a preliminary prospectus that Credit Suisse (LSE: 0QP5.L - news) , Jefferies and Leerink Partners are underwriting the IPO.
The company said on Wednesday it was restricted from commenting beyond its SEC filing by rules governing its IPO. (http://1.usa.gov/25xy2wv)
The SEC filing does not include how many shares will be sold, their price or details about the company's estimated worth. (Reporting by Richa Naidu, John Miller and Ben Hirschler; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
