French biotech company Neovacs said March 19 that it will attempt to raise €20 million ($27.3 million) on the Alternext Exchange of NYSE Euronext in Paris. The developer will offer 3.9 million new shares from a capital increase or 27.46 percent of its capital, and will price the shares between €5.2 and €6.0 per share.

Neovacs is developing immunotherapeutics for treating cancer and autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Its most advanced product candidate--TNF-alfa Kinoid--is an immunotherapy that targets a number of inflammatory diseases involving TNF alpha. It is moving into Phase II clinical trials in rheumatoid arthritis and is also scheduled to enter Phase II in Crohn's disease in the middle of 2010. Its second up-and-coming product is IFN-alpha Kinoid, which targets interferon alpha in patients with lupus. That drug will soon be entering Phase I/II trials.

"This company shows strong potential for a very big market, so it is better to have the company go public," says Philippe Pouletty, a general partner at Truffle Capital, which invested in the company alongside of Novartis Venture Funds.

Neovacs is the first French biotech company to go public since 2007, says Pouletty. Other biotech IPOs in the last 12 months have gotten a lukewarm reception but Pouletty says he is optimistic.  "Investors are starting to come back to interesting stories," he says.