Sale
Imperial Innovations, the publicly quoted tech transfer, incubation and investment arm of Imperial College London, has announced the sale of Imperial spin-out Thiakis to US pharma company Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in a deal worth $30 million in cash, with a further possible $120 million in cash if milestones are met.
Imperial Innovations owns a quarter of Thiakis, which is developing a hormone to treat obesity, so its net return will be around £16 million (after it shares some revenue with Imperial College).
Innovations invested £1.5 million in Thiakis in August 2006, so the return will be nearly 11 times its investment. It last valued Thiakis in its books at £3.6 million. The Imperial company will also benefit from ongoing royalty on sales of Thiakis’ product.
“This is highly significant news for Imperial Innovations and further validation of our model,” Imperial Innovations CEO Susan Searle told Science|Business. “A £100 million trade sale exit is a significant deal in any market. We stand to generate £22 million gross, £16 million net from £1. 5 million investment.”
“This acquisition is evidence of our commitment to develop and bring to market innovative, high-value medicines that have the potential to address significant unmet needs in critical therapeutic areas such as metabolic disorders,” said Mikael Dolsten, President, Wyeth Research. "Thiakis’ research and development programme fits well with our goal of addressing the medical burden of obesity in a targeted manner using biologic-based therapies.”
"As we take this important step with Wyeth, we are certain we have chosen the right company to follow through on our vision and commitment to develop and commercialise important new therapies that help address the growing worldwide medical epidemic of obesity,” said John Burt, CEO and co-founder of Thiakis.
Imperial Innovations last reported cash reserves of £43 million at year end (before factoring in this deal today). Its market capitalisation stands at £130 million today, and it has established equity holdings in 89 companies.
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