Sancilio Pharmaceuticals last week withdrew its plans for an initial public offering it hoped would bring in $86 million for its Advanced Lipid Technology drug delivery platform.
The Florida-based company registered the IPO in August 2015, but today requested that the SEC consent to its withdrawal, without giving a specific reason.
The company’s drug delivery platform enables absorption of food in the absence of healthy intestines, bile or normal gastric enzymes, according to Sancilio. The ALT platform encapsulates its drugs in micelles – lipid molecules arranged in a sphere, with hydrophilic heads facing the surface that protect the molecules inside.
Sancilio, which was founded in 2006, booked $25 million in sales last year. The company also makes prenatal vitamins, dental health products and over-the-counter dietary supplements under the Ocean Blue brand. It had planned to list on the NDSQ under SPCI.
When Sancilio filed for the IPO, it reported being an active partner with TherapeuticsMD and Mylan (NSDQ:MYL). The company was developing 4 new drug application candidates for 3rd parties, it said at the time.
“We believe there are a limited number of other companies in the U.S. that can produce soft gelatin capsules, and, to our knowledge, none of these use our proprietary methods,” Sancilio said in the IPO filing. “We believe that our ability to use these proprietary methods in the manufacture of our proprietary product candidates will provide us with a competitive advantage and be a barrier to entry for other pharmaceutical companies.”
As of this morning, Sancilio had not released any comment on the withdrawal.
