It took a long time to get there, but BG Medicine Inc. (NSDQ:BGMD) ended its first week as a public company in Wall Street’s good graces.
The Waltham, Mass.-based diagnostics company saw share prices jump 5 percent during its first week of public trading, based on the Feb. 17 closing price of $8.39. Shares were up 1.5 percent through mid-day trading Friday, to $8.58, before retreating slightly.
All in all, it was a big week for the company — CEO Pieter Muntendam even got a chance to ring the NASDAQ exchange’s opening bell Feb. 16.
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BG Medicine went public Feb. 11. The 4.75-million-share offering was its third stab at an IPO, albeit at half the valuation it had looked for in a $71.2 million attempt in December 2010. The company also scrapped plans for a $45 million IPO in 2008 and an $86.3 million offering in January 2010.
BG said it plans to use about $15 million of the proceeds to support the commercial launch of its BGM galectin-3 biomarker test. The test, designed to evaluate patients’ risk of heart attack, won 510(k) clearance from the Food & Drug Administration last month and CE Mark approval in the European Union in October 2009.
Flagship Ventures is the company’s largest backer, owning a 44.4 percent stake. Flagship partner Noubar Afeyan is the chairman of BG’s board, according to the SEC filing. Other investors include Gilde Europe Food and Agriculture Fund BV, GE Asset Management, Humana Inc., Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV, Legg Mason Capital management and SMALLCAP World Fund.
The company has said an automated version of its galectin-3 test is necessary for it to achieve broader market penetration. It’s working with Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT), Alere Inc. (NYSE:ALR) and bioMerieux SA (EPA:BIM) to incorporate the test those companies’ automated lab instruments and it plans file for FDA clearance for the automated test by the fourth quarter of 2011, according to Dow Jones.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The Massachusetts Medical Devices Journal is the online journal of the medical devices industry in the Commonwealth and New England, providing day-to-day coverage of the devices that save lives, the people behind them, and the burgeoning trends and developments within the industry.
