INTERVIEW-UPDATE 1-Nycomed ready for IPO after Daxas drug data
* Nycomed ready for IPO in 2009 if markets stabilise
* Expects to launch "smoker's lung" drug Daxas late 2010
* Seeks U.S. partner for Daxas by mid-2009
(Adds detail Q3 results, debt, Japan partner, Daxas history)
LONDON (Reuters) - Private Swiss drug company Nycomed is ready for a stock market float in 2009, if market conditions improve, after reporting positive clinical data with its experimental lung drug Daxas.
"We have our ducks in a row and we could do an IPO (initial public offering) whenever the markets come back and are stable," Chief Executive Hakan Bjorklund said on Wednesday.
A Nycomed IPO would be a significant deal, given the size of the business, with the group expecting 2008 adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of around 1.2 billion euros ($1.52 billion).
Leading European drugmakers trade on multiples of under six to over nine times EBITDA, according to Reuters data, suggesting a possible valuation of some 9 billion euros.
Bjorklund said he hoped to sign a partnership deal for Daxas in the key U.S. market by the middle of next year and launch the product in its first markets before the end of 2010.
Nycomed has already received expressions of interest from several firms but will not start the formal selection process, including setting up a data room, until after Christmas.
The company plans to file for U.S. and European marketing approval of Daxas around the middle of next year.
Full results of clinical trials on the medicine -- which will target patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), or "smoker's lung" -- will also be presented in 2009, possibly at the American Thoracic Society meeting in May.
"SIGNIFICANT" SALES
Bjorklund declined to give sales forecasts but predicted Daxas would be a substantial product in the 9 billion-euros-a-year worldwide COPD market.
"It is going to be significant. Whether it is going to 1 billion euros or slightly below or slightly above, we'll have to wait and see," he told Reuters during a visit to London to present the company's third-quarter results.
Nycomed acquired Daxas after buying the drugs arm of German chemicals group Altana (ALTG.DE) in 2006. Altana had withdrawn its marketing application in Europe in 2005 after mixed clinical results but further tests reported last month came in positive.
If approved, Nycomed's oral drug could compete with GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK.L) Advair and Spiriva, marketed by Pfizer (PFE.N) and Boehringer Ingelheim, although it works in a different way by targeting an enzyme called phosphodiesterase 4 involved in inflammation.
Nycomed plans to market Daxas in Europe itself and has partnered with Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma (4508.T) in Japan.
Success with Daxas would be a shot in the arm for Nycomed, which suffered a setback in January with the launch of generic versions of its top-selling heartburn drug Protonix in the United States.
That has weighed on the company's results, with third-quarter net turnover down 5.6 percent on a year ago at 812 million euros.
Nycomed's main investors are Nordic Capital and CSFB Alternative Capital.
The group had debt of 4.7 billion euros at the end of September but does not need to refinance this before 2013.
(Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)
