Biotie Therapies Surging Following IPO Debut

Shares of Biotie Therapies Corp. BITI traded higher by more than 39 percent in their public debut. The Finland-based firms is a specialized drug development company focused on products for neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders. The company is developing a therapy to extend the efficacy of levodopa for Parkinson's disease. Biotie also developed a product called Selincro to treat alcohol dependence. The therapy is commercialized by Lundbeck and remains a source of potential milestone payments and continuing royalties. Shares began trading for the first time just before 11:00 AM on Thursday at $16.25 after originally pricing its offering of 3.76 million shares at $14.88/ADS. Shares of the company currently trade on the Finnish stock exchange under the ticket BTHV1. Shares rose as high as $20.84 in Biotie's first day, but gave back some of the gains as volume tapered. The company reported revenue of $871,000 in its first quarter (ending March 31) and recorded revenue of $5.10 million in 2014. The company plans on using the proceeds from its IPO to fund its Phase 3 double-blind clinical trial on Tozadenant in Parkinson's through completion. In addition, there are two other product candidates in its pipeline: SYN120 (for Parkinson's disease, dementia and Alzheimer's disease) and BTT1023 (treatment for primary sclerosing cholangitis). Both of these therapries are in early Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials.