Aspreva Pharmaceuticals completes US$91 million initial public offering

Torys acted as counsel to the underwriters in Canada with a team that included Philip Brown, Cheryl Reicin, Kevin Morris and Rafal Nowak (corporate and securities), Ron Nobrega and Andrea Shreeram (tax) and Eileen McMahon (intellectual property and regulatory).

On March 9, 2005, Aspreva Pharmaceuticals Corporation (Nasdaq: ASPV; TSX: ASV) closed its US$91 million (C$113 million) initial public offering of 8,280,000 common shares in the United States and Canada. The offering is the largest biotechnology IPO in Canadian history, and Aspreva is the first Canadian company since 2001 to complete an IPO concurrently in both countries. The shares were offered in the United States by an underwriting syndicate led by Merrill Lynch & Co., co-led by Banc of America Securities, and co-managed by Pacific Growth Equities, and in Canada by Merrill Lynch Canada and BMO Nesbitt Burns. Aspreva Pharmaceuticals, based in Victoria, B.C., is an emerging pharmaceutical company focused on identifying, developing and commercializing new indications for approved drugs and drug candidates for underserved patient populations.