BLOOMBERG NEWS WIRES
Keryx, With Drugs for Cancer, Hair Loss and Obesity, Plans IPO

Jerusalem, Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Keryx Biopharmaceuticals Inc., an Israeli company that is developing drugs to treat ailments ranging from prostate cancer to hair loss, said it plans to sell shares in the U.S. in the middle of this year.

The company recently raised $8.8 million, in a transaction that valued the company at $20 million, to expand its Jerusalem facilities and fund planned clinical trials, founder and Chief Executive Morris Laster said during a Jerusalem news conference.

The company, founded under the name Partec Ltd. in 1997, expects its first sales in 2002 and to make a profit in 2004.

Laster, a 35-year-old Brooklyn-born doctor and former Israeli paratrooper, said Keryx is due to hold talks with potential underwriters in the U.S. in the next few weeks.

``We're looking for IPO opportunities in the U.S.,'' said Laster. The company's latest round of financing ``will last us until the IPO.''

Biotechnology companies rallied in 1999 and early this year. About 35 of the 200 stocks in the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index rose more than 40 percent last week as investors looked for stocks that still have room to make dramatic climbs. Many of the gainers were money-losing companies that have yet to bring a product to market.

Keryx, with 23 employees, has licensed a drug for vascular problems, called Sulodexide, from Italian company Alfa Wassermann and hopes to market it in the U.S. and Asia. Keryx also plans to seek approval to sell the drug as a treatment for kidney disease, blindness from diabetes, thrombosis and other ailments, a market it estimates at $2.5 billion.

The company said it plans to apply for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for KRX-123, a treatment aimed at hormone- resistant prostate cancer. Keryx hopes to receive rapid approval of the drug because no other treatments are currently available for that type of cancer, Laster said.

The company is also developing compounds that could be used to promote bone growth and sunless tanning.

Felice Maranz in the Jerusalem bureau