Idorsia raises $600 million to support insomnia drug launch

ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Idorsia on Wednesday raised 535.5 million Swiss francs ($592.30 million) from a capital increase to help launch and market its experimental insomnia drug, should it win approval from regulators.

Idorsia plans to file for approval for daridorexant in the United States later this year and is already building up a sales team, in hopes of getting a swift nod from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Company founders Jean-Paul and Martinne Clozel, who have more than 25% of the company's shares, are aiming to duplicate their success with Actelion, where the husband and wife team built one of Switzerland's rare biotech startup success stories before selling to Johnson & Johnson for $30 billion in 2017.

With Wednesday's capital increase, Idorsia placed 23.8 million new shares at 22.50 francs, just under the price where the company traded at 22.92 francs. The company's stock dropped 1% at 0907 GMT.

"The increased liquidity will take us through to the next inflexion points, namely key clinical data from late-stage assets and the launch of our first product, daridorexant," Jean-Paul Clozel said in a statement.

($1 = 0.9041 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by John Miller, editing by John Revill)