MONTRÉAL, Aug. 9, 2017 /CNW Telbec/ - Clementia Pharmaceuticals, a Montreal-based biopharmaceutical company successfully completed a US$120M million IPO on NASDAQ last week, following in the footsteps of Zymeworks, who completed its IPO in June, highlighting the growing momentum of the Canadian biotech sector.
Prior to this achieving this major milestone, Clementia and Zymeworks had raised more than $200 million in the last 18 months from Canadian and international investors. BDC Capital, the investment arm of BDC, has been a flagship investor for these two companies, as a founding investor for Clementia and leading the mezzanine and IPO rounds for Zymeworks.
"If more Canadian companies emulate Zymeworks and Clementia utilizing public markets to raise large rounds to finance growth, we believe that Canada can create strong, innovation based companies with an opportunity to be leaders in the industry. As the most active venture capital investor in the country, we see these two companies as great models of what can be accomplished with visionary entrepreneurs complemented with a strong capital partner," says Jérôme Nycz, Executive Vice-President, BDC Capital.
Canadian companies, universities, and research centers have consistently produced groundbreaking innovation backed by strong science. Renewed investment into the sector by BDC Capital with their $135M Healthcare Fund announced in 2013 and increased investment from other Canadian biotech focused funds is beginning to catalyze great companies, strong investment syndicates and increased international capital into the sector. Another factor attracting capital is the strong investment performance of the underlying companies offering the prospect of appealing investment returns for investors.
"The rapid growth of these two new life sciences companies is in line with our fund strategy of supporting the best performing Canadian companies with the technology and talent to assume leadership at the global level. Canada has an advantage when it comes to attracting talent in the life sciences industry because of the country's emerging tech clusters; the groundwork for an outstanding life sciences industry in Canada has been laid and is now coming to fruition," added Dion Madsen, senior managing partner of the BDC Capital Healthcare Fund.
About BDC Capital
With more than $2 billion under management, BDC Capital is the investment arm of BDC, serving as a strategic partner to Canada's most innovative and high potential firms. It offers a range of equity, venture capital and flexible growth and transition capital solutions to help Canadian entrepreneurs scale their businesses into global champions. BDC Capital's healthcare portfolio includes 15 companies whose research and innovation activities improve both productivity in the sector and the health of patients. To find out more, visit bdc.ca/capital.
About Clementia Pharmaceuticals
Clementia is a biopharmaceutical clinical trial company committed to providing treatment to those in need. The company is studying its major candidate product, palovarotene, a retinoic acid gamma receptor agonist, for the treatment of progressive ossificant fibrodysplasia (FOP) and other diseases. For more information, visit www.clementiapharma.com.
SOURCE Business Development Bank of Canada
Flavie Côté, Senior Advisor, Media Relations, BDC, [email protected], 1-844-625-8321
Share this article