Ingenium plans IPO end 2001, in talks with Celera
(UPDATE: Updates with detail)
By Marijn van der Pas
FRANKFURT, Aug 15 (Reuters) - German biotech company Ingenium plans to list by the end of next year and may link-up with Celera Genomics (NYSE:CRA - news), which co-published the human genetic blueprint in June, its chief executive said on Tuesday.
``We plan to list on the Nasdaq and the Neuer Markt within the next 18 months,'' Michael Nehls told Reuters in an interview.
Nehls said that U.S. and European investors had taken stakes in the start-up and that a current private placement of capital was more than twice oversubscribed and would raise about 50 million euros ($45.66 million) for Ingenium.
``In 10 days we will complete probably the biggest private placement at a German biotech company. We could have raised 110 million if we had wanted to,'' Nehls said.
Ingenium plans to use the money to boost its core business, the discovery of the functions behind the different human genes.
The research is likely to get a boost from Celera, which made history in June by announcing it had finished a rough draft of the human genes or genome.
Nehls, who is also the firm's chairman and chief science officer, said his company is in partnership talks with Celera but declined to give details.
He said Ingenium will seek a flotation before the end of next year to raise funds to start its own drug discovery operations. The company initially plans to cooperate with leading pharmaceuticals to jointly develop drugs.
``Within the next two or three years we want to do our own drug discovery with our knowledge of gene functions. We need a lot of money for that,'' said Nehls.
GENETIC DRUGS DISCOVERY
Ingenium is aiming to uncover the functions behind all human genes by the end of next year, posing the next step in drug development based on genetic information.
``The human genome forms the key but to be able to discover new medicines we need to know the functions of genes. With our method, we will be able to examine the functions of the bulk of all human genes by the end of next year,'' he said.
Ingenium uses mice to find the function behind the different human genes as the coded information of mouse genes differs only by five percent from the human genome. Most genes in mice are functionally identical to human genes.
The company is breeding mice with random genetic mutations, the source of inherited diseases. It examines the mice for physiological changes caused by the mutations which then allows its scientists to locate the mutated gene and uncover its function.
Nehls said that Ingenium will be able to process 50,000 to 60,000 genes per year. The human body has between 50,000 and 100,000 different genes.
He said that Ingenium's technology has undergone several proof-of-concept experiments and that the company has discovered several hundred mice with medically important characteristics.
Ingenium's main competitor Lexicon Genetics Inc. (NasdaqNM:LEXG - news) can analyse about 500 genes per year and recently-floated Deltagen Inc. (NasdaqNM:DGEN - news) has a capacity of about 250 genes per year.
With the functional knowledge of different genes, pharmaceutical companies can develop drugs that target specific genes in order to cure the illness they are causing.
``We are currently talking to leading pharma companies to develop medicines,'' Nehls said. |
