NautaDutilh advises underwriters on IPO and listing of uniQure N.V. on NASDAQ
On 5 February 2014, the ordinary shares of uniQure N.V. started trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, following its initial public offering of 5,400,000 ordinary shares at a price of USD 17.00 per ordinary share. NautaDutilh advised the underwriters Jefferies LLC, Leer-ink Partners LLC and Piper Jaffray & Co, with co-counsel Covington & Burling LLP.
uniQure, described as 'the AMSL of Dutch biotech' in a recent publication in Het Financieele Dagblad, is a leader in the field of gene therapy and has developed the first and currently the only gene therapy product to receive regulatory approval in the European Union. This product, Glybera, treats a subset of patients with lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD), a potentially life-threatening, orphan metabolic disease. Glybera will be launched commercially in selected European countries in the first half of 2014. uniQure is developing a pipeline of additional gene therapies, including product candidates targeting diseases for which either the efficacy of existing treatments is limited or the administration regimen is burdensome, such as hemophilia B, as well as diseases for which there are currently no treatments, such as San-filippo B syndrome.
Petra Zijp and Jochem Polderman advised the underwriters, assisted by Marije Veenhuizen and Philip Silvis. Edward Rijnhout provided tax advice.