BioCentury
ARTICLE | Finance

Ebb & Flow

December 11, 2006 8:00 AM UTC

When MediciNova went public on the Osaka Securities Exchange in early 2005, the San Diego biotech was hoping both to tap into the then-frothy biotech IPO market in Japan, and to take advantage of its Japanese roots - the company was formed in 2000 as a majority-owned subsidiary of Tanabe. Indeed, MediciNova (Osaka:4875) raised a whopping $130 million in the IPO and was valued at $380.6 million, even though it was only in Phase II testing.

From there, the company expected that its listing, Japanese management and deals with Japanese pharma companies would prompt Japanese investors to view it as a Japanese company, while U.S. investors would view it as a U.S. company. As it turned out, just the opposite happened - investors in both countries viewed MediciNova as a foreign investment. ...