MS & Diabetes Hopeful Bayhill No Longer IPO Candidate
Bayhill Therapeutics Inc. was a company we had been expecting to come public for a while. This was going to be a play on autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, but the company has now has withdrawn registration for what it had listed as an $86.25 million IPO.
You can probably guess the reason: unfavorable market conditions.
This was one of the ones we had followed ahead of the IPO because the company has raised what appears to be north of $60 million in venture capital funding rounds. Traditionally, companies in biotech that raise more than $25 million in venture capital tend to come onto many investor radars from VC’s to investors to institutions.
U.S. Venture Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, De Novo Ventures, CMEA Ventures, Lilly Ventures,and others have stakes from various funding stages.
The company’s MS treatment study is actually beyond initial Phase II stage, and its diabetes study is still in Phase I studies. Investors are likely going to have to hold out longer for a new IPO that would have served these major opportunities.
Jon C. Ogg
June 30, 2008