Poxel, a France-based spin-out of pharmaceutical company Merck Serono, has raised €139.3m ($158.8m) from its initial public offering, after its underwriters took up most of an over-allotment option.
The IPO was priced at €6.66 per share, and Poxel initially issued more than 17.3 million shares on the Euronext Paris market for trading, raising approximately $132m before exercising the over-allotment option.
The underwriters have the option to buy more than 261,000 additional shares, which would boost the size of the offering to $160.7m.
Poxel is developing anti-diabetic drugs and will use the proceeds to expand in Asia, to support Phase 3 clinical trials for its Imeglimin drug candidate, and to fund a Phase 1 clinical trial for its new candidate, Pxl770.
The company previously closed a $23m series B round in September 2014 featuring French state-owned investment fund Bpifrance and growth debt provider Kreos Capital. Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners initially led the first tranche of the round in 2013.
Poxel had earlier received $19.7m in a 2010 series A round, backed by Rothschild and Crédit Agricole’s private equity unit InnoBio, which was later folded into Bpifrance.