Imperial Spin-off Seeks £175m in Stock Market IPO
Circassia, a spinoff company from an Imperial lab discovery in 2006 has announced that it plans to float on the London Stock Exchange. It hopes to raise approximately £175 million in the initial public offering.
Circassia, a spinoff company from an Imperial lab discovery in 2006 has announced that it plans to float on the London Stock Exchange. It hopes to raise approximately £175 million in the initial public offering. Carissa is Imperial Innovation’s largest portfolio company, it is a biopharmaceutical company at clinical-stage. Imperial Innovations has a 19.7% equity stake in Circassia. Carissa develops immunotherapy products to treat different allergies, such as to cats and grass. ToleroMune is the novel technology that has been used to create the products. The money raised will be used to commence the final stage of clinical testing for some of the products, as well as to pay for the market launch of the cat allergy products. Circassia’s chairman Dr Francesco Granata said: “This IPO is a logical step in the evolution of the Company as we seek to exploit fully our assets and prepare for commercial launch of our lead product, Cat-SPIRE” The CEO of Imperial innovations, Russ Cummings said: “Circassia is a great example of our business model in action, supporting UK science and research alongside this high calibre management team and Board. Circassia benefits from a strong group of existing investors and this listing creates an excellent opportunity to build a leading UK-based biopharmaceutical company which is addressing a substantial and growing international market. The announcement of Circassia's intention to float on the Main Market in London follows the recent NASDAQ IPO of Oxford Immunotec, illustrating the considerable strength in depth and maturing of our portfolio."
