News | Pharmaceuticals & Life Sciences

Wednesday 17th October 2001

SJ Berwin has confirmed its reputation as one of the leading law firms advising in the global lifescience arena, building upon its impressive record to date by acting for two syndicates - including some of the most respected biotechnology and life science investors - on the recently completed equity investments in RiboTargets Holdings plc and Solexa Limited.

The investment of £32 million in RiboTargets, one of the largest European private equity investments for a pharmaceutical company in 2001, was the Company's third round of institutional funding. The syndicate was led by JP Morgan Partners and Apax Partners and included Advent Venture Partners, Quester Capital Management Limited, 3i Group plc and 3i Bioscience Investment Trust plc, NIB Capital Private Equity of the Netherlands and Orbimed Advisors, LLC of New York.

RiboTargets is a privately owned biopharmaceutical company with therapeutic interests in anti-infectives and oncology, encompassing antibiotics, AIDS and Hepatitis C. The company, which focuses on structure based design, applies its unique, proprietary computational screening technology, RiboDockª, to fast-track drug candidate screening and lead compound identification.

The investment in Solexa was the second round of institutional funding. A syndicate led by Schroder Ventures Life Sciences - and including Amadeus Capital Partners and Oxford Biosciences Partners of Boston, USA - joined the company's principal first round investor, Abingworth BioVentures, to provide funding of £12 million.

Solexa is developing mapping technology for the first draft of the archetypal human genome. The technique, dubbed "Total Genotyping", is based on a radically new way of sequencing DNA and measuring genetic differences between any individual and a reference sequence as a means to understand how these small genetic variations increase or decrease susceptibility to disease.

Commenting on these deals, corporate finance partner Perry Yam said: "The past year has witnessed a surge of interest in life sciences. Given the meltdown in the IT and internet sectors, combined with the excitement surrounding the human genome project, investors are finding biotechnology increasingly attractive. SJ Berwin is delighted to be so closely involved in this burgeoning market".

The SJ Berwin teams were led by Perry Yam, assisted by Jonathan Betts, Will Holder and Ed Griffiths.

• SJ Berwin is a full-service international legal practice with more than 470 lawyers across its offices in London, Brussels, Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Madrid and Paris.
• With the largest dedicated private equity team in Europe, comprising 140 full-time corporate private equity lawyers together with support from its other departments, SJ Berwin advises clients on the full-range of private equity business, both in connection with the establishment of private equity funds and their associated incentive schemes, and on MBOs, MBIs, public-to-privates and venture capital investments.
• SJ Berwin has recently won the European Venture Capital Journal Award for Private Equity Law Firm of the Year 2000, Law Firm of the Year and Property Team of the Year at The Lawyer Awards 2000, and Competition Team of the Year at the Legal Business Awards 2000.