Curacyte AG

22 March 2005

Tweet
Facebook
LinkedIn
Google plus
Send to

Curacyte AG, a late-stage drug discovery and development company, has announcedits merger with biopharmaceutical company IBFB PHARMA GmbH. Curacyte AGwill remain a financial holding with three wholly-owned operating subsidiaries inLeipzig, Jena and Chapel Hill, the US. In addition, Curacyte announced the successfulcompletion of a â‚¬ 16.5m series-C private placement. This financing round willsupport the development of the company's combined product portfolio. Thesyndicate includes new investors, CFH Corporate Finance Holding GmbH, IBGBeteiligungsgesellschaft Sachsen-Anhalt mbH, S-Beteiligungsmanagement LeipzigGmbH and MittelstÃ¤ndische Beteiligungsgesellschaft Sachsen mbH, as well as existingCuracyte shareholders, TVM Techno Venture Management, GZ Paul Partners, IKBPrivate Equity, Alpinvest, and Stroh Companies. Terms of the merger and series-Cfinancing transaction were not disclosed.

Company

The merger creates a biopharmaceutical company with a rich clinical, pre-clinical anddiscovery pipeline of medicines to treat inflammatory and cardiovascular diseases.Curacyte's lead product, PHP, is in phase III clinical development for distributiveshock, and phase I as a concomitant treatment for interleukin-2 (IL-2) treatedpatients with renal cell carcinoma and metastatic melanoma. Supported byencouraging results from a recent Phase II clinical trial of PHP in distributive shock,Curacyte is currently in discussions with potential pharmaceutical partners whohave the ability to develop and market the product. The combined company hasseveral pre-clinical products, scheduled to enter clinical development in 2006. Apartfrom establishing therapeutic focus, IBFB complements Curacyte's research resultingin leading edge drug discovery operations. IBFB PHARMA is a biopharmaceuticalcompany engaged in discovery and development of therapeutics to treat a variety ofinflammatory diseases. The combined company's headquarters will relocate fromMunich to Leipzig.Curacyte AG was founded in February, 2001, as a research-based biopharmaceuticalcompany dedicated to the discovery and development of innovative and clinicallymeaningful new medicines in the areas of hematology, antithrombosis and oncology.In 2002, the company announced its merger with VitaResc Biotech AG, adevelopment-stage company focused on novel treatments for critical careconditions and inflammatory diseases.IBFB PHARMA was founded in 1997 as a spin-off from the university of Leipzig.Since then, IBFB has emerged as a drug discovery and development companyfocusing on validated targets in inflammatory diseases including asthma, COPD,rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis.

People

Dr Helmut SchÃ¼hsler and Stefan Fischer represented TVM and the other investorsof Curacyte. Mario Ober, CFH, and Hendrik Liebers, IBG, negotiated the project onbehalf of the IBFB investors. Dr Helmut SchÃ¼hsler of TVM is chairman of theCuracyte supervisory board, whilst Mario Ober is chairman of the IBFB supervisoryboard. Dr Helmut Giersiefen is the CEO of Curacyte AG.