Canadian biotech Ondine picks London and floats in £104m IPO
London’s life sciences assets have been boosted this morning as Canadian-headquartered Ondine Biomedical made its debut on the Aim market at a valuation of £104m.
Ondine raised around £23m prior to the listing, and it plans to use the IPO funds to roll out its first product, a “photo-disinfection liquid treatment” that is says destroys viruses and helps prevent the spread of Covid.
Having developed the non-antibiotic antimicrobial technology at Imperial College London, a spokesperson for the company told City AM that Ondine had chosen London over other bourses “because it believes investors here have a deeper understanding of healthcare.”
It comes as investment into life sciences continues on its upward trajectory in London, bolstered by the UK’s strong university research faculties.
Just last week, KPMG UK set up a new regulatory team in its life sciences practice in London, amid increasing demand for consulting services in the area.
London’s stock exchange played host to its eighth-biggest listing this year at the end of September, when Oxford university spinout Oxford Nanopore made its warmly received debut. Share surged as much as 45 per cent on its listing, valuing the biotech at almost £5bn.