SAP founder increases his influence in German biotech

Investment round completed

Heidelberg Pharma GmbH raised €16 million in a second round funding from existing shareholders. HDP Beteiligungs, the venture capital vehicle of Dietmar Hopp the founder and former CEO of the German software company, SAP AG, increased its stake to approximately 86 percent, with a total contribution to date €16 million.

This brings the total amount raised by Heidelberg Pharma to €41 million. The new money will fund ongoing clinical development programmes, enabling the company to complete a Phase IIb efficacy study of the lead compound Fosfluridine for the systemic treatment of the skin cancer actinic keratosis, continue the ongoing phase II trials of its anti-HIV drug Fosalvudine against drug-resistant HIV viruses, and fund promising pipeline-projects.

Jan Schmidt-Brand, CEO said, "We are happy to see that our efforts and the milestones met confirm the confidence of our investors in Heidelberg Pharma.”

Heidelberg’s technology platform consists of a lipid-based conjugate that can be linked to marketed drugs to increase their efficacy and reduce the side effect profile. The technology has been applied to develop five compounds to date.

In addition, the company has a collaboration with the US National Cancer Institute and the University of Southern California to apply the technology to an unnamed drug.

The technology was developed originally by Boehringer Mannheim, which was acquired by Roche. Heidelberg was formed by a management buyout in 1999 and subsequently acquired by Hopp in 2004.

Over the past four years Hopp has become a leading investor in German biotechnology, and is reported to have invested over €200 million to date. Among more than a dozen investments he has interests in Curacyte GmbH, and in July this year led the merger of Lion Bioscience with Axaron GmbH, following Lion’s disposal of its bioinformatics business in March 2006.

Axaron is a specialist in neurodegenerative diseases and Lion’s strategic move into this area was underlined earlier this week when it completed the acquisition of another central nervous system diseases company, Signis Bioscience. Following this acquisition Hopp owns 20 per cent of Lion.