Bone and kidney treater Acologix abandons $115M IPO
Acologix, a Hayward, Calif., biotech focused on treating bone and kidney disease, withdrew an IPO that it had hoped would raise as much as $115 million. The company cited what is now becoming a familiar phrase, that “the terms currently obtainable in the public marketplace are not sufficiently attractive” to warrant proceeding with the offering.
Acologix first filed for an initial offering in August 2006. The company’s lead drug candidate, known as TRK-820, is a drug intended to treat a severe itch known as uremic pruritis that is associated with kidney disease. The drug, which Acologix licensed from Toray Industries in June 2005, is in a late-stage human trial in Europe and scheduled to begin a U.S. test in 2007. Another drug, AC-100, has failed two mid-stage trials for the restoration of teeth and oral bone.
Acologix started life as a consulting business run by current CEO Yoshinari Kumagai, who spent eight years saving money before turning the company into a drug-development firm in 2000. The East Bay Business Times profiled Kumagai here.
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About the Author, David P. Hamilton
David Hamilton has been writing for VentureBeat LifeScience since April 2007. He formerly spent 14 years as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in its San Francisco and Tokyo bureaus. Prior to that, he spent several years as a reporter at Science Magazine and as a reporter/researcher for the New Republic, both in Washington.