July 5, 2005 -- Europe led the US in IPOs in the second quarter. Only two biotech IPOs were completed on US exchanges, versus five in the European markets. In the US, Xenoport Inc.was the bigger offering, raising $52.5 million through the sale of 5 million shares at $10.50. Gentium S.p.A., an Italian company, was the only other one. Gentium raised $21.6 million through the sale of 2.4 million shares at $9 on the AMEX. All in all, only $74.1 million was raised in US public markets, a decidedly weak performance. In contrast, the five companies going public on European exchanges raised nearly $255 million. We look at the IPO market and its implications for biotech funding...
