Axcan Pharma Closes Equity Offering

Quebec-based Axcan Pharma Inc., a leading specialty pharmaceutical company, completed a US$66.125 million public offering of common shares on March 26, 2002. Pursuant to a short-form prospectus filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada and a registration statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company issued 5.75 million common shares. The offering was made concurrently in the U.S. and Canada pursuant to the multijurisdictional disclosure system.
Lapointe Rosenstein and Léger Robic Richard acted as counsel to Axcan. The Lapointe Rosenstein team included Alexandre Ciocilteu, Denis Boudreault, Howard Levine and Carole Turcotte (securities) in Montreal. The Léger Robic Richard team was led by François Painchaud, Panagiota Koutsogiannis and Marie-Ève Côté (corporate and intellectual property) in Montreal. Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP was Axcan’s U.S. counsel, with a team in Atlanta that included Elizabeth Noe, Wayne Shortridge, Jim Maxson and Jay Rodriguez, and Mike Haun (tax) and Susan Lively, Melissa Schwartz, Rachel Gagnebin and Jennifer Hong in Washington, provided assistance in preparing and reviewing the U.S. registration statement filings.
The syndicate of underwriters was comprised of J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., Thomas Weisel Partners LLC, UBS Warburg LLC, National Bank Financial Inc. and SunTrust Capital Markets, Inc. Stikeman Elliott acted as counsel to the underwriters, with a team that included Kenneth Ottenbreit and Marie-Josée Henri (securities) in New York, and Marie-Andrée Beaudry (tax) in Montreal. Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP acted as U.S. counsel to the underwriters, with a team that included Robert Williams, Ian Sterling and Jared Brandman (securities) in New York.