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Swiss Biotechs May Get SPAC Listing Option Soon

SPACs could ‘jump start’ Switzerland’s stalled IPO market

 
• By Sten Stovall

Although 2020 was the best year ever for Swiss biotech financing activities, no domestic IPOs were launched by the sector. But introducing the SPAC might change that.

SPACs are publicly traded shell companies • Source: Alamy

The attraction to investors ofSwitzerland’s robust and increasingly integrated life sciences landscape helped the country’s biotech sector nearly triple its capital raising last year, boosting the total to CHF3.44bn ($3.76bn) from CHF1.2bn ($1.3bn) in 2019, according to the Swiss Biotech Association’s latest annual report.

That record run of capital raising included privately held companies and Swiss biotechs that listed on NASDAQ last year. According to the report, released on 20 April, publicly listed companies drew in almost CHF2.7bn ($2.9bn) of that fresh capital. These included ADC Therapeutics SA 's IPO on the NYSE. (Also see "Finance Watch: Five More Biopharma IPOs In The US Raise $624.7m" - Scrip, 29 September, 2020

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