REYKJAVIK, ICELAND & NEW YORK– Alvotech, a global biotech company focused solely on the development and manufacture of biosimilar medicines for patients worldwide today announced that its ordinary shares and warrants will begin trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (“Nasdaq”) on Thursday, June 16, under the new ticker symbols “ALVO” and “ALVOW”, respectively. This follows the successful completion of the company’s business combination with Oaktree Acquisition Corp. II (“OACB”), a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by an affiliate of Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. (“Oaktree”). The merger, which was approved on June 7 by OACB shareholders, creates a publicly traded, pureplay company focused on the growing global biosimilar market.
The public listing is expected to be the largest debut on a U.S. exchange by an Icelandic company. Ordinary shares of the company are also expected to trade on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market in Iceland commencing on June 23, 2022. Alvotech is expected to be the first dual-listed Icelandic company on both a U.S. and Icelandic stock exchange.
“Becoming a public company is a historic milestone on Alvotech’s growth journey,” said Robert Wessman, founder and Executive Chairman of Alvotech. “We expect that becoming a listed company will allow us to continue strengthening our position in the biosimilar space while delivering value to our partners and patients across the globe.”
“Oaktree is proud to be associated with Alvotech, a world-class biosimilar platform with a mission-critical focus on providing important drugs at a reduced cost,” said Howard Marks, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of Oaktree. “We look forward to the continuation of our relationship as the company enters its next phase of growth.”
Since its inception a decade ago, Alvotech has built a vertically integrated, state-of-the-art platform for developing and manufacturing biosimilars at scale. Biosimilars are therapeutic equivalents to biologics, a rapidly growing category of highly efficacious medicines, that provide lower-cost alternatives to higher-priced originator medicines. Biologics represent over 40% of all pharmaceutical spending in the U.S. and over 30% of spending on medicines in Europe at list prices1. Alvotech’s current portfolio of eight products and product candidates targets multiple therapeutic areas and represents an estimated total addressable market of over $85 billion based on estimated peak sales of the reference products2.
Alvotech’s lead product, AVT02 (adalimumab), a biosimilar to Humira®, has launched in Canada and Europe and is expected to launch in the U.S. on July 1, 20233. For the U.S. market, Alvotech is pursuing an interchangeability designation for AVT02 (adalimumab) and has previously announced FDA acceptance of Alvotech’s BLA supporting interchangeability for the company’s high-concentration, citrate-free biosimilar candidate. More recently, the company has announced positive topline results for AVT04 (ustekinumab), Alvotech’s proposed biosimilar to Stelara®, for both the confirmatory clinical, safety and efficacy study and a pharmacokinetic (PK) study.
In order to give its products global reach with local expertise, Alvotech has formed strategic commercialization partnerships with leading pharmaceutical companies spanning global markets. These include partnerships with Teva Pharmaceuticals, a US affiliate of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE and TASE: TEVA) for the US market; STADA Arzneimittel AG for EU and select other territories; and Fuji Pharma Co., Ltd (TSE: 4554) for Japan, among others.
The transaction is supported by a PIPE totaling approximately $175 million, raised entirely as ordinary shares, at $10.00 per share. The PIPE was backed by top-tier investors such as Suvretta Capital, Athos (the Strüngmann Family Office), CVC Capital Partners, Temasek Holdings, YAS Holdings, Farallon Capital Management, and Sculptor Capital Management, among others.
