Venture-backed F-Star acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb

Biopharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb gains worldwide rights to F-Star's targeted therapy for the treatment of breast and gastric cancer. It will make payments totalling $50m for the right to acquire the company and for its rights and licences. It will also make a further payment at the start of the Phase 1 trial.

The new owner will fund the development of FS102, the therapy targeting the human epidermal growth factor receptor HER2, which is ready for Phase 1 clinical trials. Bristol-Myers Squibb has the option to purchase F-Star at the start of the HER2 Phase 2b trial for up to $475m, including the initial $50m payment, the purchase fee and further payments at the start of the Phase 3 clinical trial.

Previous funding
F-star raised €1.5m in seed funding from Atlas Venture in January 2007. In September that year, Aescap Ventures joined Atlas in a €6m round, while Novo Ventures contributed €3m two months later.

MP Healthcare Venture Management and Merck Serono Ventures co-led an €8m series-A financing round for F-Star at the end of 2009. The company raised €15m in April 2011 from all existing backers, as well as TVM Capital and SR One.

In October 2013, F-star raised a further €9.4m from its backers. In total, the company has raised almost €43m since its inception in 2006.

Company
Biopharmaceutical company F-Star Alpha, and its wholly owned subsidiary F-star Biotechnology, develops antibody products for oncology treatment. It was founded in 2006 at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, and has a research centre in Cambridge employing 35 people.

Its modular antibody technology allows for quick discovery and development of bispecific antibodies. HER2 is found in breast and gastric cancers and is involved in tumour growth. FS102 targets HER2 and could eliminate cancer cells by working in a different way to current HER2-targeted therapies. It binds to an HER2 cell and then works to kill the cell, which may overcome the problems with resistance to other currently available drugs.

People
Francis Cuss is executive vice president at Bristol-Myers Squibb. John Haurum is CEO of F-Star.

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