Cellartis acquired by Cellectis
The Swedish company Cellartis has been acquired by Cellectis. For €16.4m in cash and roughly €12m in shares, the French genome engineering specialist has taken over the company. Cellartis was founded 2001 in Göteborg, Sweden, as a university spin-off and has developed a world-leading stem cell platform and products based on human pluripotent stem cells. With 62 employees, it earned €3.8m in 2010.
“We are extremely delighted to take the next transformative steps and continue to build on our stem cell platform together with Cellectis” said Johan Hyllner, CEO of Cellartis. “In my opinion, the deal represents a giant leap forward in creating a strong industrial corporation, encompassing many new innovations and entering the stem cell and regenerative medicine arena.”
Cellartics value for Cellectis is based on two main pillars. The Swedes own the largest stem cell bank in the world (30 proprietary lines) and in 10 years have built a considerable expertise and two certified production sites in Sweden and Scotland. The second pillar is the research collaborations with partners like Novo Nordisk and the French Blood Agency.
In return for the full divestment of their stake, Cellartis shareholders will receive 16.4 million euro in cash and 1.93 million Cellectis shares.
Cepheid inaugurates new facilities
The US diagnostics company Cepheid has inaugurated new facilities in Solna outside Stockholm in Sweden and hopes to employ over 200 people.
The company today has 85 employees in Sweden but more staff will be hired due to a scale up in production at the new facilities. Cepheid develops, manufactures, and markets in vitro diagnostic (IVD) test systems that perform genetic analysis, including quantitative and qualitative detection of DNA and RNA, for the diagnosis and monitoring of infectious diseases, women’s health, genetic diseases and cancer.
Cepheid also commercializes assays and instrumentation for the assessment of biohazardous agents in the environment, and for life science research. Cepheid has manufacturing facilities both in Europe (Cepheid AB, Bromma, Sweden) and in the United States (Sunnyvale, CA) as well as offices in France (Cepheid SA), Benelux, and the United Kingdom.
Switzerland joins ESS collaboration
Switzerland has now formally joined the international European Spallation Source (ESS) collaboration. Through signing the multinational Memorandum of Understanding, Switzerland will now take part in the project planning for and the design of the future research facility.
“With Switzerland signing the Memorandum, the engagement in ESS from European governments is further strengthened, which gives us a very stable ground for the European collaboration on ESS,” says Lars Börjesson, Chairman of the ESS Steering Committee.
“For the ESS project, the Swiss participation in the Pre-Construction work means that we can benefit from the vast Swiss experience in neutron science and from building and operating an accelerator-based spallation source,” says Colin Carlile, the ESS Director-General.
Through signing the Memorandum, Switzerland will participate in the project planning and design work that will result in a final technical design for ESS, the building-up of the future ESS organisation and eventually an international convention.
The Swiss contribution to the ESS will be provided by the Paul Scherrer Institute in collaboration with industrial and university partners. Through PSI, Switzerland will contribute with design work and project planning for the ESS target station and several instruments. The instrument R&D and design work will be done in collaboration with scientists in Denmark. The PSI is the largest research institute in Switzerland, building and operating several large-scale research facilities. One of them is the Swiss Spallation Neutron Source, SINQ, which is one of four accelerator-based spallation sources currently in operation around the world.
Biotie to Acquire Newron Pharmaceuticals
Turku located Biotie Therapies Corp. and Italian Newron Pharmaceuticals S.p.A. has signed an agreement for Biotie to acquire Newron in a transaction valued at EUR 45 million. The Transaction is still subject inter alia to the approval by the EGM of Newron expected to be convened at the end of October 2011.
In acquiring Newron Biotie creates a deep pipeline with two drugs, nalmefene and safinamide, in late-stage Phase 3 development targeting alcohol dependence and Parkinson’s disease, respectively. It also creates a critical mass and a broad and risk-diversified pipeline of clinical-stage compounds, focused on disorders of the central nervous system (CNS) and niche inflammatory disease.
“We see this transaction as a win-win for both companies’ shareholders and it confirms Biotie as a key consolidator of high-quality CNS assets. We look forward to optimizing the combined robust product pipeline to create value for our shareholders, partners and other stakeholders,” comments Timo Veromaa, President and CEO of Biotie.
The Transaction is not expected to affect Biotie’s operations or organizations in Finland and in the US. The structure of the Newron organization in Italy and Switzerland will be reviewed and restructuring is planned.
Risk of mass job losses at the Finnish Medicines Agency
The Finnish government has decided to transfer the Finnish Medicines Agency (Fimea) from Helsinki to Koupio. This has led so far to only three employees signing up to the move.
The other 80 employees are therefore at risk of being handed their notice since they do not want to move to Koupio. At the moment Fimea operates from both cities but the move will be finalized in 2014. The authorities are now concerned that the situation will threaten pharmaceutical security in Finland.
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