By Mary Welch

Staff Writer

Gemini Genomics plc, a British clinical genomics firm, filed to raise between $72 million and $84 million by selling 12 million shares of stock in an initial public offering (IPO) on Nasdaq.

The Cambridge, UK-based firm chose that exchange for its first foray into public financing because "a lot of our peers (in the UK) are on Nasdaq rather than the London exchange," said Tony Ratcliffe, the company's chief financial officer. "There is a greater understanding of the biotechnology and genomics industry in the U.S., so it was an obvious route."

The company will sell 12 million shares of stock in the form of American Depository Shares (ADSs). Each ADS will represent two ordinary shares. SG Cowen Securities Corp., of New York, will act as lead manager, with New York-based Chase H&Q as co-manager. Gemini also granted the underwriters an option to purchase another 900,000 shares.

The financing should last the five-year-old firm at least 12 months, Ratcliffe said.

Gemini will use the money to build up the company, including its new business development headquarters in Boston. "We will use it to significantly accelerate the business," he said. "The facility in Boston is important because, again, that's where our peer group is, as well as markets and analysts. We also have a subsidiary in Sweden."

Despite a volatile market, Ratcliffe said it was a good time to go public. "We're a genomics company, which is a subsector of biotechnology," he said. "There is a great public interest in the genomics world, and from that point of view, it's a good time for an IPO."

Gemini identifies the relationships between human genes and human health and disease. It collects clinical and medical information from human volunteers from a number of groups, such as twins, disease-affected individuals and founder-type populations. Gemini then uses this data to identify genes relevant to disease. For instance, it has the largest database in existence of fraternal twins, analyzing 160 points of interest, the company said.

The company then licenses discoveries from this research to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and other companies engaged in drug discovery or gene-based diagnostic applications.

The company has several collaborations. In its first commercial gene discovery study, in collaboration with Tokyo-based Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co. Ltd., Gemini's scientists confirmed relationships between a candidate gene provided by Kyowa and clinically relevant risk factors for age-related diseases. The study focused on a gene thought to be involved in chronic diseases, such as osteoporosis, skin atrophy and emphysema.

Earlier this year, Gemini and CuraGen Corp., of New Haven, Conn., signed a deal to combine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with clinical data to identify and validate drug targets.

The company also is working with Sequenom Inc., of San Diego, to determine the medical relevance of human genetic variations that are being released into the public domain.