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In June 2004, Immuno-Designed Molecules S.A. pulled its proposed E99 million ($119 million) IPO on Euronext in Paris when French investors proved uninterested. The cancer immunotherapy company concluded that the only way to gain access to capital was to reverse merge into a public U.S. company. Three years on, founder and CEO Jean-Loup Romet-Lemonne is leaving the company with some lessons for other companies considering similar choices.

Last week, IDMI announced Romet-Lemonne was leaving in the wake of an FDA panel's 12-2 vote against recommending approval of the company's Junovan mifamurtide to treat newly diagnosed high-grade osteosarcoma...