Date: 2013-07-26
Type of information: Establishment of a new subsidiary in the EU
Acquired company: Antitope (UK)
Acquiring company: PolyTherics (UK)
Amount: £13.5 million
Terms: * On July 26, 2013, PolyTherics has announced that it has merged with Antitope, a provider of antibody engineering and immunogenicity screening services, to create an enlarged group with an extensive suite of services and technologies to enable the development of better biopharmaceuticals. PolyTherics is issuing new shares up to an aggregate value of £13.5 million to fund the merger with Antitope and to provide working capital for the enlarged group.
Dr John Burt will continue as CEO of PolyTherics and Antitope will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of the PolyTherics group. Dr Matthew Baker will continue as Chief Scientific Officer for Antitope and the company will retain its base, management and operational structure at the Babraham Research Campus, near Cambridge.
Details: The new PolyTherics group will leverage its combined portfolio of proprietary and complementary technologies and services to address key needs in biopharmaceutical development. The combined portfolio will include conjugation technologies to produce more stable and homogeneous antibody drug conjugates, technologies to optimise the pharmacokinetics of biologics, technologies for immunogenicity screening, technologies to re-engineer antibodies and proteins to reduce their immunogenicity, and cell line development technologies. * On May 23, 2014, PolyTherics announced the formation of a new company, Abzena. The new company has been created to provide a strong group identity across its two wholly owned subsidiaries, PolyTherics and Antitope, following their combination in July 2013. During the summer PolyTherics’ operations will move from London to the Babraham Research Campus in Cambridge, the current site of Antitope's operations. It will also grow its operations on the Warwick University Science Park where it maintains a presence following the acquisition of Warwick Effect Polymers by PolyTherics in January 2012. Abzena’s services and proprietary technologies include immunogenicity assessment, protein engineering to create humanized antibodies and deimmunised therapeutic proteins, manufacturing cell line development; and bioconjugation technologies for antibody drug conjugate development and novel polymers for enhancing the therapeutic properties of biopharmaceutical products. Abzena is a privately owned UK company backed by institutional investors including Imperial Innovations (AIM: IVO), Invesco Perpetual, Mercia Fund Management, Advantage Enterprise & Innovation Fund (managed by Catapult Venture Partners), Capital Fund (managed by YFM), ProVen Growth & Income VCT and Oxford Technology VCTs.
PolyTherics provides technology solutions to enable the development of better biopharmaceuticals and offers a portfolio of proprietary and complementary technologies and services to address key needs in biopharmaceutical development. Its portfolio includes proprietary site-specific conjugation technologies and novel polymers for optimising the therapeutic properties of biopharmaceuticals, including ThioBridge™ for more stable and homogeneous antibody drug conjugates, TheraPEG™, CyPEG™, HiPEG™ and PolyPEG™ for optimisation of the pharmacokinetics of biologics and GlycoPol™ for targeted delivery.The PolyTherics group will provide immunogenicity testing, antibody humanisation and protein re-engineering technologies through its Antitope subsidiary, including EpiScreen™, Composite Human Antibody™, Composite Protein™ and Composite CHO™.
Related: Technology - Services
Development
