Kiadis plans European IPO
The Netherlands-based cell therapy company Kiadis Pharma BV is planning an initial public offering (IPO) of its shares on the Euronext stock exchanges in Amsterdam and Brussels to finance the clinical development of a cell therapy that helps reconstitute the immune system after a bone marrow transplant.
The Netherlands-based cell therapy company Kiadis Pharma BV is planning an initial public offering (IPO) of its shares on the Euronext stock exchanges in Amsterdam and Brussels to finance the clinical development of a cell therapy that helps reconstitute the immune system after a bone marrow transplant.
The size and terms of the offering are expected to be disclosed in mid-July. The company has already received assurances of support from its venture capital backers as well as from a significant new shareholder, Manfred Rüdiger, the company’s chief executive, said in an interview. Kiadis’ investors include DFJ Esprit, Alta Partners and Life Sciences Partners.
The planned European listing comes a little more than a month after Biocartis Group NV, a developer of molecular diagnostics, successfully raised €100 million on Euronext Brussels. The offering was substantially oversubscribed.
Kiadis has developed a cell therapy called ATIR (allodepleted T lymphocytes for early immune reconstitution) that is being tested in patients with leukaemia as an adjunct to an haematopoietic stem cell transplant. Funds from the offering will support the lead product ATIR 101 as well as an earlier-stage treatment for patients with thalassemia which is a group of inherited blood disorders.
ATIR 101 is a treatment option for patients who are eligible for an allogeneic stem cell transplant but can’t find a suitable donor. The product consists of T cells from a donor which have been depleted of cells that could potentially cause an immune attack called graft versus host disease.
In early clinical studies, ATIR 101 has been shown to be safe and increase the survival of patients with high-risk malignancies. A Phase 2 trial that is currently underway aims to confirm the positive interim data. The results of this study are expected at the beginning of 2016. “ATIR works by providing the patient with fully functional, healthy T cells which we read out in the clinic as less death from infection, and fewer relapses because the T cells also have activity against residual tumour cells,” the executive commented. The Kiadis trial protocol has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration even though there are no studies underway in the US at the moment.
Provided the data are good however, a trans-Atlantic Phase 3 study would follow. “Our base plan is to conduct a trans-Atlantic randomised controlled Phase 3 study where we compare haploidentical (partially matched) transplantation in combination with ATIR with haploidentical transplantation according to the Baltimore protocol,” Dr Rüdiger said. The Baltimore protocol is an investigator-driven treatment which is already in use in a transplantation setting.
Kiadis hopes to make a regulatory submission in Europe in the third quarter of 2016, the executive said
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