Date: 2015-01-20
Type of information: Establishment of a new subsidiary in the EU
Compound: BliNK Biomedical
Company: Valneva (France) BliNK Therapeutics (UK)
Therapeutic area: Technology - Services
Type agreement: establishment of a new subsidiary in the EU
Action mechanism:
Disease:
Details: * On December 11, 2014, Valneva SE and UK company BliNK Therapeutics Ltd announced the creation of a private company specialized in the discovery of innovative monoclonal antibodies to be headquartered in Lyon, France and to be named BliNK Biomedical SAS. The new company, which will benefit from the combination of two validated antibody discovery platforms, BliNK Therapeutics Ltd’s IVV and Valneva’s VIVA|Screen®, has already secured its first round of financing.
The creation of BliNK Biomedical SAS will give Valneva’s antibody business the necessary structure and prospects to expand into novel antibody discovery fields outside of infectious diseases while offering a new investment opportunity for future additional shareholders. While Valneva intends to retain a substantial ownership interest in the new entity, BliNK Biomedical SAS will be run as an independent business by its own management team. This step will allow Valneva to concentrate on vaccines research, development and commercialization. At the same time, Valneva will continue to benefit from its VIVA|Screen® antibody technology through its financial participation in the new company. Irina Staatz, former Chairman of BliNK Therapeutics will be the new Chairman of BliNK Biomedical SAS.
The new company will be owned by Valneva, Kurma Biofund I (founding investor of BliNK Therapeutics), funds managed by Idinvest Partners, Cancer Research Technology (CRT) and BliNK Therapeutics Ltd’s founders. Kurma Partners, CRT and Valneva will appoint members of the Supervisory board of the new company. BliNK Biomedical SAS will be headquartered in Lyon, France, currently the center of excellence for Valneva’s antibody discovery activities, with a subsidiary at GSK’s and Wellcome Trust’s bioincubator (BioScience Catalyst) in Stevenage, UK.
Financial terms: The new company, which will receive assets from Valneva and shareholders of BliNK Therapeutics Ltd in exchange of ordinary shares, has already secured a Series A financing from Valneva, Kurma Biofund I and funds managed by Idinvest Partners against issuance of a combination of preference shares and convertible bonds. Valneva will contribute its VIVA|Screen® business in exchange for ordinary shares of the new company and will provide approximately € 2.0 million in cash through convertible bonds. At completion of the transaction, Valneva will hold approximately a 48.2% equity stake in the new company. Valneva’s intangible assets related to its VIVA|Screen® business are recorded at a book value of € 10.4 million as at September 30, 2014.
Shareholders of BliNK Therapeutics Ltd will contribute their shares to the new company. Funds managed by Kurma Partners and Idinvest Partners will invest approximately € 2.0 million in cash. The transaction values the new company at approximately
€ 17 million following the completion of the financing. The closing of the transaction is scheduled for the beginning of 2015 and is subject to a limited number of conditions precedent, including the absence of material adverse eventand the consent of certain third parties.
Latest news: * On January 20th, 2015,Valneva and BliNK Therapeutics announced the closing of the transaction creating BliNK Biomedical SAS, a private company specialized in the discovery of innovative monoclonal antibodies as announced on December 11th, 2014. All conditions precedent have been met, including the absence of material adverse events and the consent of certain third parties.
The new company, which is headquartered in Lyon, France, will develop first-inclass antibody therapeutics against novel targets based on its unique antibody discovery platform which results from the combination of two already validated platforms, BliNK Therapeutics’ IVV and Valneva’s VIVA|Screen®.
