FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Investors were rewarded with a strong premium right on the first day of trading on Thursday for Schott Pharma 's initial public offering. The first price for the securities was 30 euros

and this also corresponded to the price paid in the early afternoon. This meant a plus of about eleven percent compared to the issue price of 27 euros. This was in the upper half of the price range of 24.50 to 28.50 euros.

In this wake, the shares of competitor Gerresheimer also recovered somewhat from their recent slump: they climbed at times by more than four percent, but recently curbed their gain to around half a percent.

Borsians were very satisfied with Schott Pharma's first day of trading so far. "Particularly in the current rather difficult overall market environment, the shares are holding up well above the placement price of 27 euros," said market observer Andreas Lipkow. "Overall, defensive industries and sectors are currently strongly in the focus of investors."

Market observers see Schott Pharma swimming on a wave around important megatrends in the pharmaceutical industry: first and foremost, these include mRNA agents and so-called GLP-1 drugs. Experts are unanimously predicting a major boom for both technologies.

The special glass manufacturer Schott produces, among other things, ready-to-use syringes and glass containers for such applications. According to one dealer, the Mainz-based company's products are considered first-class. Just recently, the company reported a multi-billion dollar order from the industry related to GLP-1 dosing pens.

GLP-1-based drugs are currently the focus of particular interest on the stock market, and the shares of leading manufacturers such as Novo Nordisk and the U.S. company Lilly have gained up to 50 percent in value this year alone. This is because GLP-1 drugs, which were originally developed as blood sugar reducers, have also turned out to be highly effective in the fight against obesity. This is currently generating huge hype, particularly in the USA.

For a long time, the shares of Schott Pharma's competitor Gerresheimer, which also manufactures the pens for the GLP-1 drugs and has already concluded long-term contracts with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, also benefited from this. After a record high of 123 euros at the beginning of September, however, the share price had recently fallen by almost a fifth, and thus more significantly than the market.

Many analysts, however, are convinced of the group's prospects thanks to GLP-1 technology. As early as March, JPMorgan expert David Adlington predicted great opportunities for Gerresheimer as a result of GLP-1, as the pharma expert expects global sales of 39 billion dollars in 2025 - only five years later, according to his estimates, the total should already grow to 67 billion dollars.

In a recently published study, UBS analyst Colin White also pointed to further potential areas of application if current evidence from studies continues to accumulate that the active ingredients also have a preventive effect, for example on chronic kidney disease or sleep apnea./tav/tih/stk