Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO or ‘the Group’, ‘Innovations’) notes today’s announcement by portfolio company Cell Medica (the ‘Company’) of its acquisition of Delenex Therapeutics AG (‘Delenex’) based in Schlieren, Switzerland.
Cell Medica is a cellular immunotherapy company, focused on the development, manufacture and marketing of cell-based therapeutics for the treatment of cancers and infectious disease. As at 31 January 2016, the Group had a 27.0% interest in the issued share capital of the Company with such interest having a net fair value of £21.0 million.
Delenex is a privately held, clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of locally and systemically applied antibody therapeutics. Delenex’s proprietary PENTRA®Body technology, which enables the rapid development of antibody therapeutics suitable for various routes of administration, will be integrated within the Company’s development programme to create next-generation cellular immunotherapies with improved functionality and specificity.
Delenex’s scientific team and the company’s Schlieren laboratory facilities will be maintained within Cell Medica’s global R&D operations.
The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
The acquisition of Delenex follows Cell Medica’s recent announcement of a significant collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine for the development of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-based cellular immunotherapies.
Russ Cummings, CEO at Imperial Innovations, said:
“This acquisition, which is a major step forward for the business, combined with the recent collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine, serves to highlight the scale of Cell Medica’s ambition.
“Delenex Therapeutics provides a key enabling technology to help develop a pipeline of next generation CAR-modified immunotherapies.
“The management team, with its operations in the UK, US, Germany and Switzerland, has now built a strong platform from which to deliver the strategic plans to become a world-leader in cell therapy.”
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Notes To Editors
About Imperial Innovations - www.imperialinnovations.co.uk
Imperial Innovations Group plc (“Innovations”) creates, builds and invests in pioneering technology companies and licensing opportunities developed from outstanding scientific research from the ‘Golden Triangle’, the geographical region broadly bounded by London, Cambridge and Oxford. This area has an unrivalled cluster of outstanding academic research and technology businesses, and is home to four of the world’s top 10 universities, as well as leading research institutions, the cream of the UK’s science and technology businesses and many of its leading investors.
Innovations supports scientists and entrepreneurs in the commercialisation of their ideas, through the licensing of intellectual property, by leading the formation of new companies, by recruiting high-calibre management teams and by providing investment and encouraging co-investment. Innovations remains an active investor over the life of its portfolio companies, with the majority of Innovations’ investment going into businesses in which it is already a shareholder.
Since becoming a public company in 2006, Innovations has raised more than £440 million of equity from investors, which has enabled it to invest in some of the most exciting spin-outs to come out of UK academic research. In addition, the Group has agreed £80.0 million in loan facilities from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
Between Innovations’ admission to AIM (August 2006) and 31 July 2015, Innovations had invested a total of £236.8 million across its portfolio companies, which had raised collectively investment of £1.3 billion.
About Cell Medica – www.cellmedica.co.uk
Cell Medica develops, manufactures and markets cellular immunotherapy products for the treatment of cancer and infections. Cell Medica employ a range of leading-edge technologies to develop immune cell products with the potential to transform the lives of cancer patients in the years ahead.
Cell Medica’s lead oncology product, baltaleucel-T, is aimed at a range of cancers associated with the oncogenic Epstein Barr virus (EBV), including non-Hodgkin lymphomas, Hodgkin lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma. The safety and efficacy of this novel cancer immunotherapy is currently being investigated in a ground-breaking international Phase 2 clinical trial (CITADEL) for the treatment of advanced NK/T cell lymphoma. Cell Medica is also working in collaboration with the Baylor College of Medicine to develop next-generation cellular immunotherapies incorporating chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) with genetically enhanced potency for the treatment of cancers that do not respond to conventional therapies.
In addition to its oncology programs, the company is pioneering the use of adoptive T cell Immunotherapy for the treatment of cytomegalovirus and adenovirus infections in patients who are profoundly immunosuppressed from allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell (bone marrow) transplantation.
