Themis postpones IPO

The company said it decided to postpone its listing on Euronext Amsterdam "due to adverse market conditions."

Originally, Themis wanted to offer up to a total of 3,608,247 ordinary shares within a price range of €9.70 – €11.60 per share totaling €55.3mm in best case if a 15% overalloment option will be fully exercise. Expected market capitalisation would have ranged between €120.4m and €157.5m. The IPO, led by NIBC Bank N.V. and Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited with Erste Group Bank AGa as co-bookrunner, would have consisted of a public offering to retail investors in the Netherlands and private placements to institutional and eligible investors in other countries. The company said that it now will investigate other strategic options, including financings, for the development of its programmes.

Themis wanted to use the net proceeds to launch a pivotal Phase III trial of its measles-virus vaccine based lead vaccine for Chikungunya (MV-CHIK) by 2020. There are currently no approved vaccines for Chikungunya fever, a potential US$500m market. MV-CHIK has been granted PRIME status by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). In October, the company licensed an oncolytic measle-virus-based platform from Max-Planck-Innovation and University of Tübingen, which it intends to use as a delivery vector for toxic payloads and antigens that might trigger T cell activation. Finally, Themis said it wants to expand its commercialisation capabilities.

Both in vitro and animal pre-clinical experiments have demonstrated the ability of its modified measle-virus vaccine-based vector in destroying tumour cells. Themis anticipates generating first-in-human data in the second half of 2019 with an initial focus on gastrointestinal (GI) tumours. Themis is progressing various other programmes alone or through partnerships. These include vaccine programs against RSV, Noro virus, CMV, Zika virus, MERS and Lassa fever.

Themis believes that its proprietary vaccine manufacturing technology allows significantly shortened development cycles from design to cGMP manufacturing.