NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – French molecular diagnostics company Genomic Vision today announced the launch of its initial public offering.
It plans to offer about 1.3 million shares of its stock at an expected price range of between €13.5 ($18.61) and €16.5 per share. At the midpoint of the range, the IPO is anticipated to raise about €20 million ($27.6 million), Genomic Vision said. The company plans to list its shares on Euronext Paris.
It has an increase option to offer up to 199,999 shares, which would raise an additional €3 million in proceeds at the midpoint price of €15, and has an overallotment option to offer up to 229,999 shares. If exercised in full, the overallotment option would raise proceeds of an additional €3 million.
Proceeds will be used to create a sales team in Europe and to fund ongoing projects aimed at improving the company's molecular combing technology platform. In particular, it said, it aims to reduce the analysis time. New R&D projects will also be funded with proceeds.
Genomic Vision is a spinout of the Pasteur Institute. Its core technology, molecular combing, "stretches out DNA fibers on glass slides" making it possible to identify genetic anomalies by locating genes or specific sequences in a patient's genome using genetic biomarkers, it said. It added that the technology "improves the detection of structural variations at the origin of numerous genetic diseases and hereditary forms of cancer."
It has marketed a test for the detection of facioscapulohumeral dystrophy — also known as Landouzy-Dejerine muscular dystrophy — in France since 2013. In the US, the test is available through Genomic Vision's strategic partner Quest Diagnostics, which has an approximately 21 percent stake in the company.
The partners have a licensing and collaboration agreement to jointly finance the development of Genomic Vision's tests, and Quest has selected four tests "with a view to marketing them through its network of 2,100 laboratories," Genomic Vision said.
The four tests being developed, in addition to the facioscapulohumeral dystrophy test, include ones that target breast cancer and colon cancer that should become available in 2015, it said.