Movetis, the Belgian spin-out from Johnson & Johnson, said Nov. 20 that it has filed to raise up to more than €112 million in what could be Europe's first biopharma initial public offering since Italian biotech Molmed raised €56 million in February 2008.

Is this the kind of discovery-oriented biotech listing that signals the IPO window is open for the backlog of companies keeping warm by burning through VC cash from insider rounds? Not really.

Movetis spun out of J&J at the end of 2006 with about €60.8 million in Series A venture funding led by Sofinnova (Sofinnova Partners holds 22.5 percent, Sofinnova Ventures has 16 percent) and Life Science Partners (16.9 percent). At the time, its lead asset, Resolor , was already in Phase III; it had been newly approved in Europe for a subset of constipation patients. J&J held on to 21.2 percent of the company.

Still this will be a good sign that public investors in Europe are ready to wade back into biopharma plays, even if backing the launch of a specialty product is more than slightly different than backing most other life sciences start-ups.

Movetis said that the price range of the offering was set at €11.25 to €14.25 per share. The offering comprises a public offering in Belgium to retail investors and a private placement to institutions in Belgium and other ex-U.S. territories. The offer opens Nov. 23 and runs through Dec. 2, with Movetis shares scheduled to hit the market on Dec. 4.

The company will use the funds raised to support the commercial launch and post-marketing regulatory commitments for Resolor (prucalopiride) in Europe. The drug, a selective 5-HT4 receptor agonist, received EMEA approval in October for the symptomatic treatment of chronic constipation in women in whom laxatives fail to provide adequate relief.

Movetis plans to launch and promote Resolor itself in markets where it can make do with a lean, specialist sales force. CEO Dirk Reyn said in an interview after the drug's approval last month that, in the UK for example, "GI specialists prescribe between 30 and 40 percent" of drugs for this market and where general practitioners prescribe drugs, they do so under centrally controlled guidelines from bodies such as NICE and local primary care health trusts.

In other markets, where GPs have more freedom, Movetis will need to partner to access a primary care sales force. In Italy, for example, "it is more difficult to reach that audience with a targeted approach," Reyn said.

Before leading Movetis, Reyn was head of the worldwide GI marketing group and VP, new business development at J&J's Janssen-Cilag unit. He said in the previous interview that although J&J realized Resolor was unlikely to serve the kind of large, primary care market it was initially intended to reach, smaller companies like Movetis could succeed in neglected sub-segments of the GI market.

Resolor's label, said Reyn, provides the necessary ingredients for success. By going after patients for which laxatives do not provide adequate relief, "it created the stronger probability of regulatory approval and, secondly, creates a target market that is very defined and which is also more palatable and digestible for payers."

It will see in a couple weeks whether it is also palatable for public investors, too.

[Editor's note: Look for a round up of notable biotech financings reported by the editors of IN VIVO about every other week in "The Pink Sheet" DAILY. And for more insights on financings and deal-making, attend the first-ever combined BIO-Windhover partnering meeting and Pharmaceutical Strategic Outlook strategy conference, Feb, 23-25, 2010 in New York City. More information is available here.]

ThromboGenics NV: With significant funding from Belgian and international institutional investors, public Belgian biotech ThromboGenics seems to have gotten the momentum it needs to complete development of its Phase III biologic microplasmin for vitreomacular adhesion. The company announced Nov.17 that it raised €42 million ($63 million) by selling 2.6 million shares, approximately 10 percent of its outstanding stock, for €16, a very slight discount to the 10-day market average.

The raise lends weight to the idea that investors increasingly see ophthalmology as an area with large potential and unmet need, or at least an area where they can turn a nice profit. Microplasmin, a potential alternative to surgery also in Phase II for AMD, diabetic retinopathy, and diabetic macular edema, works by dissolving protein formations that link the vitreous to the retina.

Beyond microplasmin, ThromboGenics has done a good job of monetizing other pipeline projects through deal-making. Most notable is its long-term partnership with BioInvent International in which both companies can contribute candidates and split costs and revenues. Initially focused on ThromboGenics' Factor VIII inhibitor TB402 for deep vein thrombosis and atrial fibrillation, the deal was later expanded to include Thrombo's placental growth factor (PIGF) blockers. The partners' work on the latter class of drugs paid off last year when Phase I cancer candidate TB403 from the PIGF program was exclusively licensed to Roche in exchange for €50 million up front and the potential for €450 million in development and commercialization milestones.

NicOx: NicOx is tapping into French government funding to help top-up a planned €30 million private placement. Still short of a U.S. partner (and thus of a partner's money) for recently-submitted naproxcinod, the company says the capital increase will allow it to "significantly advance" its launch preparations for the drug.

More specifically, in line with its long-stated goal of becoming a fully-integrated specialty pharma, NicOx will create a specialist sales and marketing infrastructure in the U.S. T

The government-supported Fonds Strategique d'Investissement, set up late last year to support local mid-sized companies in key growth sectors, will invest €20 million in total across the two-step financing (for a 5.1 perecent stake in the biotech), which will include a subsequent rights issue (when market conditions permit) that may take the total fundraising up to €100 million. That's a fair chunk from the FSI, given that average investment size was initially slated at 5-€10 million.

CEO Michele Garufi has long worked to secure a commercial partner for naproxcinod, but this now looks unlikely to materialize before the drug is approved. And although this move shows NicOx's confidence in its product, it should be wary of under-estimating approval risk, even for an anti-inflammatory drug that's based on a well-known, proven NSAID, and claims better safety than naproxen.

4SC AG: On Nov. 16, Germany-based 4SC grossed €30 million ($44.7 million) in a collateral rights offering of 10 million shares to existing backers. Stock was sold at €3, a 10-day market average. In 2008, the medicinal chemistry and discovery company's drug development pipeline (and expenses) took off when it purchased eight oncology projects from Nycomed, which was exiting the space. 4SC expects the new funds will take it through 2011 and allow it to complete proof-of-concept studies for its two lead candidates: resminostat, an HDAC inhibitor for hepatocellular carcinoma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and 4SC101, an oral DMARD being tested with methotrexate for rheumatoid arthritis.

Fate Therapeutics: Stem-cell concern Fate's $30 M Series B round was led by returning investor OVP Ventures and includes corporate funders Genzyme Ventures, Astellas Venture Management, and a mystery third company. Fate officials said they won't need cash for two years, but from their list of activities it sounds like they'll spend every penny. One on side, they're racing to create a commercial supply of pharma-grade induced pluripotent stem cells, the kind drug companies can use for all kinds of screening and testing. Fate could help licensees differentiate cells, or sell them the pluripotent versions. CFO Scott Wolchko said to look for license deals in the next 12 months. The company will also be its own customer. It's got one small molecule in Phase I that aims to redirect hematopoetic stem cells and help cord-blood transplant patients recover faster. The drug, FT1050, is the first test of the company's proposition that it can modulate a patient's own stem-cell populations, using small-molecule triggers, for therapeutic effect. OVP's Carl Weissman joined the Fate board, and all the Series A subscribers joined the B round

-Christopher Morrison (c.morrison@elsevier.com), Amanda Micklaus (a.micklaus@elsevier.com), Melanie Senior (m.senior@elsevier.com) and Alex Lash (a.lash@elsevier.com)

Financings Of The Fortnight: Movetis Files First European Biopharma IPO Since Early 2008

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