Novo Holdings invests £53.5 million into Oxford Biomedica
pharmafile | May 30, 2019 | News story | Business Services, Sales and Marketing | Novo Holdings, Novo Nordisk, Oxford BioMedica, Shares, cell and gene therapy, lentivirus
Novo Holdings has agreed to buy 10.1% of shares in British firm Oxford Biomedica for £53.5 million.
Novo will buy 6.6 million new shares at a price of £6.90 each paying a total of £45.5 million. The Novo Nordisk owned holding company will then buy a further 1.2 million shares at the same price.
The price Novo will pay is equivalent to the market closing price on 24 May 2019. The investment comes as the British firm’s gross income increased by 72% last year.
Oxford Biomedica will use the funds to pay off debts owed to Oaktree Capital Management and to further develop LentiVector – a lentiviral-based gene delivery system which could be used to deliver cell and gene therapies.
Robert Ghenchev, Director at Novo Holdings, commented: “Oxford Biomedica is a global scientific and manufacturing leader within lentiviral vectors, one of the most established and well-validated technologies for delivering gene and cell therapies.”
“This investment underscores Novo Holdings’ commitment to supporting companies developing cutting-edge science that makes a real difference to patients and society. We are genuinely excited about this investment and look forward to working with Oxford Biomedica and supporting the Group going forward.”
John Dawson, Chief Executive Officer of Oxford Biomedica, added: “We are delighted that Novo Holdings has become a shareholder in Oxford Biomedica. Novo Holdings is a well-known and highly regarded long-term investor with significant expertise in working with innovative, life sciences businesses to unlock their growth potential.”
“This experience will be a great asset far beyond the financial commitment they have made to the Group and their collaboration and support will be highly valuable as we seek to scale up our operations both on the platform and on the proprietary product portfolio.”
Louis Goss
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