In a sign that the biotech IPO window may be opening, four more companies this week have filed to go public. Codexis, based in Redwood City, California hopes to raise $100 million. The company is a leading provider of optimized biocatalysts for industrial and biopharmaceutical applications. Its products are used by pharmaceutical companies such as Merck, Pfizer and Dr Reddy's Laboratories, and by companies working to develop advanced biofuels with partners such as Royal Dutch Shell. Codexis is also developing biocatalysts to use in other bio-industrial markets, including green chemicals, carbon management, and water treatments.

 

Codexis plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol "CDXS." Credit Suisse Securities and Goldman Sachs are the joint book-running managers, with RBC Capital Markets and Pacific Crest Securities acting as co-managers for the offering. Both Codexis and certain of its stockholders will sell their shares in the proposed IPO.  The company's venture capital shareholders include CMEA Ventures, FirstMark Capital,  CTTV Investments, and Burrill & Company, the publisher of The Burrill Report.

 

Pennsylvania-based regenerative medicine company Tengion registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $2.25 million in an initial public offering. The company has not yet determined the number of shares to be offered and the price range of the offering for which Piper Jaffray will be the sole manager.

 

Tengion's focus is on growing replacement organs and tissues in the lab using a patient's own cells. The company has raised $144 million in venture capital since its founding in 2003, with Oak Investment Partners, HealthCap Venture Capital, and Johnson & Johnson Development as its three biggest stockholders.

 

Austin, Texas-based molecular diagnostics company Rules-Based Medicine also registered with the SEC to offer shares in an IPO. The company is developing molecular diagnostic tests using its multi-analyte profiling (MAP) technology, which it acquired from Luminex in September 2002. The company is developing a 51-panel biomarker test to help psychiatrists diagnose various psychiatric conditions. The company brings in revenue from pharmaceutical services, which were $21.7 million in 2008, up from $13 million in the previous year.

 

Finally, Canadian diagnostics company Med BioGene filed to propose an initial public offering of common share in the United States, planning to list on the Nasdaq Capital Market. Shares will be offered by the company with Rodman & Renshaw acting as the sole manager. Med BioGene focuses on the development and commercialization of genomic-based personalized clinical laboratory diagnostic tests.