News | Pharmaceuticals & Life Sciences

Monday 2nd December 2002

SJ Berwin has maintained its reputation as one of the leading law firms advising in the global biotechnology/lifescience arena, building upon its impressive record to date, by acting for JP Morgan Partners, one of the most respected biotechnology and life science investors, on the recently completed equity investment in Renovo Limited.

The syndicated investment of £21 million (US$32.7million) in Renovo, one of the largest investments in a European biotechnology company in 2002, was the Company's second round of institutional funding, having received backing from JP Morgan Partners and Atlas Venture two years ago.

Along with Atlas Venture, other syndicate members were new investors, HealthCap and Care Capital.

Renovo is a privately owned biotechnology company focused on pioneering research into the use of embryonic cell technology to aid the healing of wounds and repair scarring. The funds will be used to pay for clinical trials of several drugs the Company is developing which include treatment for scarring to the eye.

Commenting on this deal, corporate finance partner Perry Yam said: "The investment in Renovo is further validation of the value that exists in the European biotechnology sector and confirms its position as an active sector in this more difficult time for the market generally. Having advised on the previous funding round, SJ Berwin is delighted to be involved with this latest stage in the Company's evolution".
The SJ Berwin team was led by Perry Yam who was assisted by Sally Roberts and Daniel Workman.

• Leading position as adviser to Life Science and Biotechnology investors: in 2001, SJ Berwin completed 13 deals with an aggregate value of £200 million
• Acted on the largest funding of a UK biotech company in 2001 which comprised a further funding, partial exit for certain founders and a share capital reorganisation
• Acted on the two largest venture investments in UK biotechnology companies comprising syndicates of the foremost biotech investors
• Pre-eminent position in the most active sector in venture capital in 2001
• Specialist adviser on the establishment of pan European private equity funds including the leading Life Science funds

Other recent Biotechnology/Life Sciences transactions

Microscience Limited
SJ Berwin acted for Apax Partners, JP Morgan Partners and Advent Venture Partners in relation to an investment in Microscience Limited. Microscience is focused on the discovery and development of innovative vaccines and the funds were invested to pay for clinical trials of five vaccines the Company is developing which include vaccines to protect against Typhoid, Traveller's diarrhoea, Hepatitis B, Meningitis B and neonatal Group B Streptococcus infections. More broadly, Microscience is developing a technology that could allow a wide range of novel vaccines to be administered orally. The investment completed in February 2002 and SJ Berwin had acted on an earlier round of investment in relation to Microscience in March 2000.

Healthgain Solutions Limited
SJ Berwin acted for Advent Venture Partners in relation to an investment in Healthgain Solutions Limited. Healthgain's business is in pharmaceutical consultancy and contract sales. The investment completed in June 2000.

Rademacher Group Limited
SJ Berwin acted for Apax Partners and Advent Venture Partners in relation to an investment in Rademacher Group Limited. Rademacher Group Limited researches and develops pharmaceutical products for the treatment of a wide range of endocrine, immunological, cardiovascular and neurological diseases. The investment completed in September 2000.

Oxagen Limited
SJ Berwin acted for Schroder Ventures Life Sciences, Credit Suisse First Boston Private Equity and Abingworth Bioventures in relation to an investment in Oxagen Limited. Oxagen is in the business of developing new treatments and diagnostic tests by discovering the genetic basis of common diseases. The investment was completed in December 2000.

Avidex Limited
SJ Berwin acted for (1) Advent Venture Partners and Quester and (2) Sitka Partners and eTechnology VCT in relation to two investments in Avidex Limited which completed in June 2002 and August 2002 respectively. Avidex is a drug discovery company with a unique technology leading to the next generation of compounds for graft rejection, autoimmune disease and cancer using T cell receptors. SJ Berwin had acted on an earlier round of investment in relation to Avidex in December 2000.

Cytocell Limited
SJ Berwin acted for Apax Partners in relation to an investment in Cytocell Limited. Cytocell develops molecular diagnostics for the detection of genetic diseases, cancer genes and infectious diseases. The investment completed in January 2001.

Micromet AG
SJ Berwin acted for Advent Venture Partners in relation to an investment in Micromet AG. Micromet is a German company that designs and develops antibody-based drugs for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The investment completed in March 2001.

Astex Technology Limited
SJ Berwin acted for Advent Venture Partners and Abingworth Bioventures in relation to an investment by way of a subscription for shares and conversion of loans in Astex Technology Limited. Astex specialises in the development and application of technology to exploit protein structure for drug discovery. The investment completed in April 2001.

Lorantis Holdings Limited
SJ Berwin acted for JP Morgan Partners, Quester, Abingworth Bioventures and Schroder Ventures Life Sciences in relation to an investment in Lorantis Holdings Limited. Lorantis develops technology to treat diseases related to the immune system. The investment completed in April 2001. SJ Berwin has since acted for all of the above investors together with Northern Venture Managers in a subsequent round of investment which completed in November 2001.

Kudos Pharmaceuticals Limited
SJ Berwin acted for Advent Venture Partners, 3i Group plc and Schroder Ventures Life Sciences in relation to a further financing in Kudos Pharmaceuticals Limited. Kudos is a pharmaceutical company which specialises in the research into and the discovery and development of products which significantly improve disease management with particular emphasis on DNA repair mechanisms. The investment completed in May 2001.

Inpharmatica Limited
SJ Berwin acted for Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Advent Venture Partners, Abingworth Bioventures and Gilde in relation to an investment in Inpharmatica Limited. Inpharmatica is a structural bio-informatics company focused on providing and applying extensive protein structure related information to target drug discovery. This enables researchers to competitively progress each stage of the drug discovery process. The Company is the leading informatics-driven drug discovery company which is now well placed to take further advantage of the genomic and proteomic data currently being generated. The investment completed in June 2001.

Ionix Pharmaceuticals Limited
SJ Berwin acted for Apax Partners in relation to an investment in Ionix Pharmaceuticals Limited. Ionix specialises in pain treatment development. The investment completed in July 2001.

Phoqus Limited
SJ Berwin acted for Abingworth Bioventures in relation to an investment in Phoqus Limited. Phoqus is involved in the development and commercialisation of a novel, patent-protected, pharmaceutical formulation and manufacturing technology for drugs to be administered in solid oral dosage form, based on the principles of electrostatic powder deposition. The investment completed in August 2001.

Affymax, Inc
SJ Berwin acted for Apax Partners in relation to an investment in Affymax, Inc. Affymax is involved in the discovery, development and commercialisation of phage display, protein interactions, single transmembrane receptors and family based screening programs. The investment completed in August 2001.

Affibody, Inc
SJ Berwin acted for Schroder Ventures Life Sciences in relation to an investment in Affibody, Inc. Affibody is a proteomics and biotherapy company leading the development of combinatorial protein engineering to enable high-throughput protein characterisation for use in drug discovery and the development of novel biotherapeutics and diagnostic products. The investment completed in August 2001.

RiboTargets Holdings plc
SJ Berwin acted for JP Morgan Partners, Apax Partners, Advent Venture Partners, Quester, 3i Group plc, 3i Bioscience Investment Trust plc, NIB Capital Private Equity (of the Netherlands) and Orbimed Advisors, LLC (of New York) in relation to an investment in RiboTargets Holdings plc. RiboTargets uses a structure based design (RiboDock¨, a computational screening platform capable of screening up to one million compounds against a target in just 24 hours) to rapidly identify and develop novel therapeutic pharmaceuticals. The investment completed in September 2001. SJ Berwin also acted for some of the above investors in previous funding rounds in RiboTargets which completed in July 1997 and June 2000.

Solexa Limited
SJ Berwin acted for Schroder Ventures Life Sciences, Abingworth Bioventures, Amadeus Capital Partners and Oxford Bioscience Partners in relation to an investment in Solexa Limited. Solexa is involved in the business of the preparation and analysis of single molecule rays. The investment completed in September 2001.

Procognia Limited
SJ Berwin acted for Apax Partners in relation to an investment in Procognia Limited. Procognia is involved in the business of applying a series of integrated complementary technologies (biochip, algorithms and software) to increase the probability of success in developing glycoprotein drugs and to enable the production of higher quality biopharmaceutical products. The investment completed in April 2002.