DUBLIN – Molecular Partners AG got its Swiss initial public offering (IPO) airborne last week, at the second time of asking. The Schlieren, Switzerland-based biotechnology firm scaled back the transaction by about one-third, but it still raised CHF96.5 million (US$99.6 million), by placing 4.307 million shares priced at CHF22.40 per share on the Swiss Exchange (SIX) in Zurich. Another 660,000 shares are available to cover overallotment options.

The stock, which trades under the ticker symbol MOLN, opened Wednesday at CHF25, implying a market capitalization of CHF482 million, before ending the day at CHF22.50.

Despite the haircut, the IPO is still a positive for European biotechnology as it signals that another exchange is now open for business. It's been five years since the last biotech firm went public in Zurich. What's more, the two listings completed that year did not actually raise any cash. Reinach-based Evolva Holding SA went public in December 2009 through a reverse acquisition of Arpida AG, which was accompanied by a private equity round. And Stans-based Mondobiotech Holding AG went public that year without raising any cash. (See BioWorld Asia, formerly BioWorld International, Sept. 2, 2009.)

The only listing that was completed in 2008 was that of an investment fund, Zug-based HBM Bioventures AG. It's a full seven years since any drug development biotech firm completed an IPO on the SIX. In 2007, Geneva-based Addex Therapeutics SA and Milan, Italy-based Cosmo Pharmaceuticals SpA, raised CHF137 and CHF53.5 million, respectively.

Back then, Switzerland's SIX Exchange was shaping up to be the leading exchange for European life sciences firms, given the market's strong liquidity and depth of analyst coverage, thanks to the presence of two big pharma bellwethers Novartis AG and Roche Holding AG, a wave of strong start-ups emerging from Switzerland's high-performing universities and a preference for many Italian firms, including several big pharma spinouts, to access Switzerland's base of specialist investors.

However, the European financial crisis, combined with the usual vagaries of drug development, derailed that possibility. Zug-based Auris Medical Holding AG, which is developing drugs for hearing loss indications, opted to go to Nasdaq when it went recently went public, in a transaction in which it netted $56.4 million, including overallotments. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 7, 2014.)

Berlin-based market consultants Biocom AG recently ranked the SIX a lowly eighth in a study of European biotech exchanges, which assessed their relative performance using six metrics. Significantly, however, it ranked first in one category, average trading volume, indicating its dormant potential.

Whether Molecular Partners is a lone swallow or a harbinger of more to come remains an open question for now. The company has secured licensing deals in cancer and ophthalmology with Roche and Allergan Inc., respectively, on the back of its Darpin protein scaffold technology.

There are few privately held Swiss biotechs that currently have its level of maturity or capability. But those that doubtless watched the Molecular Partners transaction with interest include Geneva-based Novimmune SA, which raised CHF60 million back in February and which is currently running a phase II trial of an interferon-gamma inhibitor in hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis.

There is also Lausanne-based AC Immune SA, which has a broad pipeline of drugs and vaccines in development for Alzheimer's disease and partnerships with several large players, such as the Genentech arm of Basel-based Roche. It has relied on a consortium of private investors, however, who tend to be more patient than classical venture capital investors in need of a quick exit.

One or two more large-scale transactions would raise SIX from its eighth-place ranking.