Oryzon Shareholders Approve Listing to the Spanish Continuous Market
Company to submit prospectus in Q4-2015; Solventis AV investment banking will coordinate the IPO process
BARCELONA and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The General Meeting of Shareholders of Oryzon, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on Epigenetics to develop therapies in oncology and neurodegenerative diseases, agreed to publicly trade 100% of the company's shares in the Spanish Main Market.
Oryzon will carry out the listing process by submitting the prospectus to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV in Spain) in Q4-2015 followed by trading on the Madrid Stock Exchange upon standard regulatory process approvals. The firm has engaged Solventis AV to coordinate the investment banking and registration listing process.
Oryzon achieved a net profit of 6.6 million Euros in 2014, with revenues of 13.1 million Euros. The success of the company during the past year was driven by its agreement with Roche in April 2014, in which the company licensed the rights of molecule ORY-1001, a LSD1 inhibitor, to the Swiss multinational. Under terms of the multimillion dollar agreement, Oryzon could receive +US$500 million in milestones plus tiered sales royalties that may reach mid double digits. Under this agreement, the company received US$21 million including US$4 million in Q3-2015, upon reaching a new milestone in the development of its drug against acute myeloid leukemia (AML), which is being tested in a human phase I/IIA clinical trial.
Also, Oryzon is advancing its leading research on epigenetic treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, and its forerunner asset, ORY-2001 a dual LSD1-MAOB inhibitor, intended to treat diseases such as Alzheimer's is finalizing the preclinical studies. This molecule, which manages to stop the cognitive decline in animal models, will begin human clinical phase I trials in early 2016. ORY-2001 can also be useful in other diseases of the nervous system such as Parkinson's disease and other dementia related diseases, such as Huntington's disease.
The company will pursue its US plans from its office in Cambridge, Mass. and plans to float in Nasdaq by a dual listing in the midterm. The company president, Carlos Buesa, explained that this operation is "a new step in the commitment to the growth and internationalization of the company and will serve to prepare us to gain dimension, to accelerate the pace of our clinical programs and for the eventual listing in the Nasdaq Exchange, the medium term objective of Oryzon."
On December 31, 2014, 32.828% of the shares of Oryzon were held by the founding partners, Carlos Buesa (16,414%) and Tamara Maes (16,414%), while the equity fund Najeti holds 30.779%. In addition, other shareholders with a significant ownership of the company include the Costex Family Office (5,986%), Sant Bernat SCR RC Corporation SA (4.592%), Josep María Echarri Torres (4,504%) and Grupo Ferrer Internacional (3,217%). The core of the company has committed to a process of lock up, by which Oryzon's founders, Carlos Buesa and Tamara Maes, are obligated to not to sell their shares on the market within 12 months of listing on the Spanish Continuous Market. In the case of the Najeti fund and José María Echarri, the lockup period will be six months.
About Oryzon
Oryzon was founded in 2000 in Barcelona by scientists Carlos Buesa and Tamara Maes. Considered a European leader in the field of Epigenetics, Oryzon is a private biotechnology company that develops innovative drugs to treat serious diseases such as cancer and other neurodegenerative diseases. Its LSD1 program is covered by 19 patent families, and it has a molecule in clinical trials along with and one that will enter clinical trials in early 2016. In addition, Oryzon has ongoing programs to develop inhibitors against other demethylases histones. The company has a strong technology platform for the identification of biomarkers, and it validates biomarkers for a variety of oncology and neurodegenerative diseases. Oryzon's strategy is to develop first-class compounds based on Epigenetics through clinical Phase II, deciding at that time on a case-by-case basis, whether to continue development internally or grant licenses for the last stage and its subsequent commercialization. In October 2014, Oryzon began operations in the US, opening its Cambridge, Massachusetts subsidiary, Oryzon Corp.
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SOURCE Oryzon
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