ANN ARBOR – QuatRx Pharmaceuticals Company in February filed an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission to go public, an exit that state and life sciences industry officials hope will become more the norm, rather than the exception, in Michigan.

Neither the number of shares or the price range have been announced, but the company, in its SEC filing, said it wanted to raise $86 million with the IPO, after raising about $67 million since it was founded in 2000. All of the shares of common stock to be sold in the offering will be offered by QuatRx.

The underwriters of the offering will be Banc of America Securities LLC, as sole book-running manager, SG Cowen & Co., as co-lead manager, and Lazard Capital Markets and Pacific Growth Equities, LLC as co-managers.

The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus through Banc Of America.

QuatRx hopes to capitalize on the bright ideas of others. The biopharmaceutical company acquires compounds in the pre-clinical stage from other companies and academic institutions and takes them through clinical studies. The company focuses on developing new therapies for cardiovascular, endocrine, and metabolic conditions. It has four product candidates, two of which are in phase I clinical trials for the treatment of high cholesterol. To expand its pipeline, QuatRx has acquired Finnish pharmaceuticals firm Hormos Medical. The acquisition brings to QuatRx’s pipeline an estrogen therapy for postmenopausal women in phase III trials and an androgen therapy for aging men nearing phase II trials.

QuatRx is headquartered in Ann Arbor and has operations in Europe through Hormos Medical Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary located in Turku, Finland. QuatRx was founded by Robert Zerbe, Stuart Dombey, Randy Whitcomb and Chris Nicholas.

In December 2004, QuatRx raised $31 million in its third venture capital round. Thomas Weisel Healthcare Ventures led the financing with additional investments by all existing institutional investors including Frazier Healthcare Ventures, TL Ventures, MPM Capital, InterWest Partners, Stockwell Capital and Twilight Ventures.

QuatRx has raised more than $67 million so far, the company said in a press release.