Israel-Medical-Healthcare

[genisi]

Great company with an outstanding CEO, i"m watching them.

http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000181314&fid=942

QBI plans Nasdaq IPO
Quark Biotech wants to raise $70 million at a value of $300 million.
Tali Tsipori 8 Feb 07 18:07
Sources inform 'Globes' that drug discovery start-up Quark Biotech Inc. (QBI) is planning an IPO on Nasdaq. The company wants to raise $70 million at a value of $300 million, although the final amount has not yet been decided, and has already met underwriters for this purpose. Procedures for the IPO will begin in a few weeks.

Speaking on behalf of QBI, Yaron Garmazi said, “An offering is one possibility being thoroughly considered.” Garmazi is considering joining the company as CFO. He has served as CFO for several Israeli companies that held IPOs, mergers or acquisitions, including Passave, Ness and Envara.

QBI made news last year when it signed a strategic agreement with Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE; LSE: PFZ), which invested an initial tens of millions of dollars in the company, and could invest several hundred million, in exchange for development and marketing rights to QBI’s treatment for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). QBI achieved its first milestone under the agreement when the drug began Phase I clinical trials a few days ago.

QBI is also the only Israeli company in which Oracle founder Larry Ellison has invested in. He was one of the company’s first investors and has backed it for over a decade.

QBI is unusual among Israeli companies in that it one of the few companies that develops drugs from the initial laboratory stage through clinical trials. The company’s links to Japan are also unusually close; most of its capital has come from Japanese venture capital funds and corporations.