NEW YORK, April 10 (GenomeWeb News) - Perlegen Sciences today filed for an initial public offering, hoping to raise up to $115 million, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Perlegen said in the IPO filing -- the first from a genomics company since the height of the Human Genome Project -- that it has so far developed two drug candidates, for type II diabetes and dyslipidemia, which are in pre-phase III development. However, the company said it expects to remain in a research and development stage for the next four to five years.
Perlegen said that it has generated approximately $69 million in revenues from collaborations through Dec. 31, 2005. The company has also incurred $153.1 million in cumulative net losses since it started operating in 2001, and expects losses to continue "for the foreseeable future," according to the SEC filing.
In 2005, Perlegen had $40.5 million in total revenues. Of that, $23.3 million resulted from contract revenue, $15.8 million from research revenue, and $1.3 million from royalty revenue from Affymetrix. Perlegen's net loss in 2005 was $21.9 million.
As of Dec. 31, Perlegen had $106.8 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments. "We believe that our existing capital resources and the net proceeds from this offering will be sufficient to enable us to maintain currently planned operations throught the next two to three years," according to the SEC filing.
The company had 105 full-time employees as of March 31.
Perlegen was incorporated in 2000 as a subsidiary of Affymetrix. Pfizer made a $50 million investment in the company in December, and Maverick Capital, CSK Ventures, and Eli Lilly also have stakes in the company.