Circassia Holdings Ltd (United Kingdom) - Jan 2008

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01 January 2008

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Imperial Innovations Plc has invested £1.75m as part of an oversubscribed £11m second financing round for biotechnology company Circassia Holdings Ltd, taking its equity stake in the business to 13%. The round was led by Imperial and included contributions from new investors Goldman Sachs and Invesco Perpetual and existing backers, including Lansdowne Partners, which were previously involved in a £6m first round of funding in January 2007. The investors were attracted to the deal by the scalability of the company’s product, which has the potential to treat all allergies and offers a rapid treatment regime with significantly reduced side effects. The new capital will be used to accelerate the development of new vaccines for cat, ragweed, house dustmite and grass allergies, which are due to begin phase II clinical trials, as well as to fund the acquisition and development of additional technologies.

Company

Circassia has developed a novel approach to the treatment of allergies based on its proprietary technology, which involves administering sections of the molecules that cause reactions, called T cell epitopes, in order to desensitise sufferers. The company’s products have the potential to offer significantly improved efficacy while reducing the side effects that often accompany current treatments. The business was founded in 2006 and is based in Oxford.

People

Russ Cummings led the investment for Imperial Innovations. Steve Harris is the CEO of Circassia.

Advisers

Equity - Osborne Clarke, Janita Good (Legal)

Sourced from: UK & Ireland unquote" 363 (Feb 2008)