Medical dermatology company Botanix Pharmaceuticals has begun trading on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) under the ticker code 'BOT'.
Botanix’s ASX debut follows its successful capital raising of $3.5M and its acquisition by Bone Medical Limited, which was approved by Bone Medical investors in June.
Botanix is a medical dermatology company using a novel drug active and proven drug delivery technology to develop prescription treatments for serious skin diseases, including acne, psoriasis and atopic dermatitis.
"Medical dermatology is a particularly attractive segment of the pharmaceutical industry with very few products in development and is characterised by many drugs that have significant side effects," said the company. "In the initial acne target indication – no new products have been approved in a decade despite more than US$3 billion in annual sales for these prescription products."
The company has also licensed a novel drug delivery technology known as Permetrex, which is designed to deliver pharmaceuticals into the skin more effectively than other approaches.
"Delivering drugs through the skin remains a significant challenge to overcome in creating new products, and this technology will be leveraged for the Botanix pipeline products as well as other potential product opportunities within the dermatology area," added the company.
According to Executive Director Matthew Callahan, “Given that acne is the most common skin disease in the world and that our lead product under development is a topically applied gel intended to treat serious acne, our first product BTX1503 targeting moderate to severe acne presents a compelling investment opportunity in a space where there has been little innovation for a decade.
“I would also like to thank our investors in the lead up to today for their confidence in the Botanix program and management's plan to accelerate BTX1503 into human trials at the end of calendar Q1 2017.”