Drug Developer KERYX Aims for Public Issue in 2000
01:17 p.m. Eastern, Jan 25, 2000
By Michele Gershberg

JERUSALEM, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Drug developer KERYX Biopharmaceuticals Inc. is aiming for an initial public offering this year, sporting a treatment pipeline that covers kidney disease and prostate cancer, company officials said on Tuesday.

"We are looking for an IPO opportunity in 2000," KERYX founder and chief executive Morris Laster said, adding the company is to meet with U.S. and European investment bankers in the coming weeks.

KERYX has headquarters in Delaware, with a research and development center in Israel. The company just completed an $8.8 million round of private financing led by Paramount Capital Inc. and Leumi & Co. Underwriters, based on a company valuation of some $21 million.

Laster said the company's valuation for an IPO could be well above $200 million, based on its business plan and treatment pipeline. At the same time, the company only expects to see sales beginning in 2002 and to start turning a profit in 2004.

SEEKS TREATMENTS FROM KIDNEY DISEASE TO HAIR LOSS

Founded in 1998, the company relies on technology called KinAce which identifies specific enzymes, or kinases, associated with a disease. KERYX then develops the drugs that inhibit or stimulate those enzymes to treat the illness.

At the top of KERYX's product roster is a treatment for diabetes-related kidney disease. The company expects to file in the United States for Phase IIB clinical trials of the drug in the second quarter of 2000.

A second leading product treats a type of prostate cancer incurable by hormone-based drugs for which KERYX hopes to enter Phase I clinical trials by this summer.

Additional drugs under development include life-threatening septic shock and immunological diseases to retaining hair lost from chemotherapy.

In all, the company's top five drug leads address markets of some $7 billion in revenues combined, Laster said.

((Jerusalem newsroom, +972-2-537-0502, Jerusalem.newsroom+reuters.com))