BG Medicine Files for $80 Million IPO

BG Medicine, a molecular diagnostics company based in Waltham, MA, announced today that is planning an IPO on Euronext Amsterdam under the symbol “BGMDX.” The registration statement that BG filed with the SEC said the company would seek to raise up to $80 million through the offering, though it didn’t specify the number of shares to be offered or the target price range.

BG, founded as Beyond Genomics in 2000 (the name was changed in 2004), has raised $52.1 million in financing since its inception, according to the SEC document. Major investors include Flagship Ventures of Cambridge and Gilde Investment Management of The Netherlands, as well as strategic partners that include Waters Corporation and Royal Philips. Flagship managing director Noubar Afeyan is a BG founder and executive chairman of the board.

The decision to trade on the Amsterdam exchange reflects the background of the company and its management, chief financial officer Mark Shooman said today. CEO and President Pieter Muntendam is from The Netherlands, as are several members of the company’s advisory board, including scientific founder Jan van der Greef. The SEC filing indicates that BG plans to build a lab facility at the Philips High Tech Campus in Eindhoven. And in January, the company announced that it is joining with Philips Medical Systems, AstraZeneca, Merck, and Humana to try to discover biomarkers for early detection of coronary artery disease. According to the SEC filing, the Dutch giant made an equity investment in BG as part of its strategic partnership and currently holds 6.5 percent of its stock. The largest single investor is listed as “entities affiliated with Flagship Ventures,” with 48.8 percent of BG stock.

The filing indicates that BG currently has the capacity for 16 to 20 new discovery projects per year, and can gather enough data do determine whether to move forward with a given project within an average of about 120 days. BG’s first product could come “as soon as 2009,” according to the SEC document. The company reported 2006 operating revenue of just over $6 million, with a net loss of $4.7 million. Revenues for the first three months of 2007 totaled $1.9 million, with a net loss for the quarter of $1.5 million.

Author: Robert Buderi

Bob is Xconomy's founder and chairman. He is one of the country's foremost journalists covering business and technology. As a noted author and magazine editor, he is a sought-after commentator on innovation and global competitiveness. Before taking his most recent position as a research fellow in MIT's Center for International Studies, Bob served as Editor in Chief of MIT's Technology Review, then a 10-times-a-year publication with a circulation of 315,000. Bob led the magazine to numerous editorial and design awards and oversaw its expansion into three foreign editions, electronic newsletters, and highly successful conferences. As BusinessWeek's technology editor, he shared in the 1992 National Magazine Award for The Quality Imperative. Bob is the author of four books about technology and innovation. Naval Innovation for the 21st Century (2013) is a post-Cold War account of the Office of Naval Research. Guanxi (2006) focuses on Microsoft's Beijing research lab as a metaphor for global competitiveness. Engines of Tomorrow (2000) describes the evolution of corporate research. The Invention That Changed the World (1996) covered a secret lab at MIT during WWII. Bob served on the Council on Competitiveness-sponsored National Innovation Initiative and is an advisor to the Draper Prize Nominating Committee. He has been a regular guest of CNBC's Strategy Session and has spoken about innovation at many venues, including the Business Council, Amazon, eBay, Google, IBM, and Microsoft.