Polyphor Ltd. (SIX:POLN) gained CHF0.20 to CHF38.20 in its first day of trading Tuesday after raising CHF155 million ($155.3 million) through the sale of 4.1 million shares at CHF38 in an IPO on the SIX Swiss Exchange. The IPO price was at the top end of Polyphor's proposed range of CHF35-CHF38, and values the company at CHF409.5 million ($410.3 million).
The underwriters were UBS, Deutsche Bank, Cantonal Bank of Zurich, Cantor Fitzgerald and Octavian.
According to BioCentury's BCIQ database, Polyphor's IPO is the third-largest for a European biopharma since 2016, behind Patheon N.V.'s $618.8 million IPO and the $217.5 million offering from Myovant Sciences GmbH (NYSE:MYOV). Those two listings occurred in 2016; Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) later acquired Patheon.
Polyphor's lead candidate, murepavadin (POL7080), is in Phase III testing to treat ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia (VABP) due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The synthetic cyclo-peptide antibiotic targeting the Pseudomonas LPS-assembly protein (OstA; LptD; Imp) has Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP) and Fast Track designations in the U.S. for the indication.