[UPDATE 20/05/2015]: Galapagos announced the closing of its NASDAQ IPO, where the company raised a total of €277.3M.
Galapagos has once again made the front page thanks to its unbeaten IPO. The company just raised €240M on Nasdaq, becoming the biggest European biotech IPO ever on the US stock market.
The Belgium company just ranked above Cellectis, who, until now, held the biggest European IPO record on Nasdaq. The two companies have something else in common: their IPOs were managed by Bryan, Garnier & Co. The firm has certainly a good eye for European biotech, as it is the only European investment bank involved in 3 of the top 5 IPOs of the European healthcare companies on Nasdaq.
The company also participated in the IPOs of DBV Technology (France). The two other Top 5 European companies are Forward Pharma (Denmark) and, more recently, Adaptimmune (UK). The successful Galapagos IPO on Nasdaq confirms the strong momentum of the European healthcare sector.
Galapagos, in the meantime, seems to be in the middle of a takeover war between Abbvie and Johnson&Johnson. The company has an advanced pipeline that includes three Phase II programs, two Phase I trials, five pre-clinical studies, and 25 discovery small-molecule and antibody programs. A very profitable company in the eyes of the two giants, who both can’t hide their interest in Galapagos.