VASTox takes over fellow zebrafish genomics specialist

Purchase agreed

VASTox plc of Oxford has taken over its counterpart Cambridge spin-out DanioLabs Ltd in a deal that valued its fellow zebrafish genomics specialist at £15 million.

The purchase of DanioLabs takes the form of 11.7 million new VASTox shares and cash of £159,000. At the end of July 2006, DanioLabs had cash of £2.74 million and recorded an annual pre tax loss of £2.76 million. VASTox intends to retain DanioLabs’ facility in Cambridge and will take on 37 staff.

Steve Lee, CEO said the acquisition of DanioLabs will make VASTox the world leader in zebrafish technology.

DanioLabs had raised around £9 million, including over £1 million in grants, since it was spun out of the University of Cambridge in 2002. The company concentrated on building disease models based on zebrafish, automating them, and using the resulting screens to reprofile existing drugs.

“We on the other hand have concentrated on screening for new chemical entities and bioanalysis. Although we have been working on the same model organism, [Daniolabs] spent its money on different things, with the result that the two companies are complementary,” said Lee.

In addition to its drug screening services arm, DanioLabs has two reprofiled drugs in Phase I for treating symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and two preclinical-stage compounds for age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma.