There’s nothing like an IPO to attract interest. Take Jazz Pharmaceuticals.

The drugmaker hopes to sell $180 million in stock on the back of its best-selling med, Xyrem, which is used to treat narcolepsy, but shows up in date-rape cases and poses a serious risk of overdose, including coma and death. The Drug Enforcement Agency lists Xyrem, otherwise known as Gamma hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, as a Schedule I drug - the most dangerous ranking and in the same category as heroin.

Meanwhile, Xyrem marketing is the subject of a federal criminal case in Brooklyn that has already resulted in one felony guilty plea by a former Jazz employee. The narcolepsy market is small, by the way, estimated at only 120,000 patients, and sales of Xyrem were just $29 million in 2006, according to The New York Times, which perused the Jazzy prospectus.

But the little drugmaker is on the verge of running out of money, so the IPO is a way for investors, including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company and several Wall Street investment banks, to cash out.

Investors may be intrigued to know, however, that this is a company that can smell a niche - Jazz sells another drug, Antizol, which is used to treat people who have been poisoned by antifreeze. With only $2.6 million in sales in this year’s first quarter, this could hardly be called a big market - at least, not until the IPO provides more marketing funds.

Source: The New York Times (registration required)