Hello all,
These guys sound like a Swedish LGND ... of course a lot earlier stage. Henry, are you familiar with them?
btw, check out the language in the press release. what do you bet it was written by someone whose first language wasn't English ...
IPO for Karo Bio
STOCKHOLM--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 4, 1998--
-- Karo Bio AB has decided to broaden the ownership base through a new share issue combined with a sale of parts of certain shareholders' holdings. The company is in conjunction with this applying for a listing of the company's series B shares on the O-List of the Stockholm Stock Exchange. The new share issue will amount to a maximum of SEK 119 m.
-- Karo Bio is a drug discovery company focusing its operations on research in the pre-clinical phase of drug development. The research and development of Karo Bio is carried out in collaboration with international pharmaceutical companies, which are responsible for the clinical development phase as well as marketing and sales.
-- Karo Bio's drug development is based on unique knowledge of so called nuclear receptors, giving opportunities to achieve tissue-selectivity, i.e. as great an effect as possible on the targeted organ and with minimum side effects.
-- Many pharmaceuticals act through nuclear receptors. Thus, additional knowledge on nuclear receptors enables development of more effective drugs. The areas for which knowledge of nuclear receptors enables drug development possibilities include osteoporosis, cancer, cardiac arrhythmia, metabolic disorders and inflammatory diseases -- all common diseases.
-- During the autumn of 1997, Karo Bio entered into collaboration agreements for drug development with Merck & Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb, which may provide the company with earnings of SEK 900 m, excluding royalty payments.
-- Application to acquire shares can be made during the period March 9-16 1998. Aros Securities and Handelsbanken Markets are acting as advisors to Karo Bio in conjunction with the IPO.
Karo Bio
Karo Bio, which was founded in 1987, is a drug discovery company working with the development of new and improved drugs for the treatment of a number of common diseases. The majority of the operations are located at the Novum Research Park on the south campus of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Karo Bio also has a subsidiary in California, USA -- Karo Bio Inc., and collaborates with the University of California San Francisco. Karo Bio has a total of 60 employees.
Commercial strategy
Karo Bio's commercial strategy is based on collaboration with international pharmaceutical companies. A collaboration agreement entails that a partner receives rights to sell jointly developed products. In addition to the financing of research, Karo Bio receives a down payment from the partner, milestone payments and royalties if a drug is successfully developed. Karo Bio's partner carries out clinical trials, marketing and sales.
By focusing activity on the pre-clinical phase, leaving more costly phases to collaboration partners, Karo Bio can carry out a broad research program. In the autumn of 1997, Karo Bio entered into collaboration agreements with Merck & Co. and Bristol Myers Squibb, which may result in revenues of SEK 900 m, excluding royalty payments, on the condition that each collaboration results in two pharmaceutical products.
With strong financial position, Karo Bio can continue to develop its operations and conclude agreements with pharmaceutical companies.
The future drug market
In order to meet the fierce competition on the international pharmaceutical market, large-scale pharmaceutical companies are employing all the more external resources on research. In order to shorten the time for drug development and increase the supply of new development projects, several pharmaceutical companies are entering into collaboration agreements with research intensive companies such as Karo Bio.
Karo Bio follows this trend and operates today as a link between the academic world of research and the international pharmaceuticals industry. Karo Bio's collaboration partners include two of the world's largest pharmaceuticals companies -- Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck & Co.
Among the academic institutions with whom Karo Bio collaborates are the University of York, the University of California San Francisco and the Karolinska Institute. Karo Bio works with both academic institutions and individual researchers.
New drugs for common diseases
Today, there is a lack of effective treatment for many of our most common diseases. The drugs used often entail severe side effects, hence there is a great demand for new drugs. Karo Bio uses its knowledge within the area of nuclear receptors in order to meet these demands and to develop new effective pharmaceutical products.
With knowledge of the structure of a nuclear receptor, the pre-requisites to develop tissue selective drugs increase. With access to the majority of the structures of the nuclear receptors that have been determined today, combined with biological evaluation models, Karo Bio has good possibilities to develop pharmaceuticals with desired properties.
Today, Karo Bio is engaged in four different research programs based on nuclear receptors:
-- The Estrogen Program aims at developing improved drugs for
women's health care, e.g. osteoporosis, breast cancer and
postmenopausal symptoms.
-- In the Thyroid Hormone Program, the aim is to develop
completely new treatments for heart and vascular diseases and
metabolic disorders.
-- The aim of the Glucocorticoid Program is to develop new and
more selective compounds to treat inflammatory diseases and
type II diabetes.
-- A fourth program identifies new interesting nuclear receptors --
"orphan" receptors, as targets for the development of new drugs.
Invitation to acquire shares
Karo Bio AB has decided to carry out a broadening of the ownership base through a new share issue combined with the sale of parts of certain shareholders holdings. The company is in conjunction with this, applying for a listing of the company's series B shares on the O-List of the Stockholm Stock Exchange. The new share issue will amount to a maximum of SEK 119 m.
The offer is directed to international and Swedish institutional investors, as well as to the general public in Sweden, and comprises a total of 2,193,258 series B shares. Over-allotment included, the offer comprises a maximum of 2,433,258 series B shares. The subscription period for the acquisition of shares for the public is March 9-16 1998. The subscription period for institutional investors lasts until March 18, 1998.
The offering price will be determined through a book building procedure directed to institutional investors, and will be set within the range of SEK 82-92 per share. The offering price per share finally determined will be published on or around March 19, 1998.
Note: The IPO is managed by Aros Securities and Handelsbanken Markets. The prospectus may be obtained from Aros Securities or from Handelsbanken branch offices.
CONTACT:
Per-Olof Martensson,
46/8/6086027
or
Per Otteskog,
46/8/6086018
or
Hakan Hallberg
46/8/6086006
KEYWORD: NEW YORK
BW1317 MAR 04,1998 |
