Growcorp generates over Eur7m following Neutekbio acquisition
Galway and Dublin, Wednesday, 3rd December, 2008: Growcorp Group, the Irish investment vehicle, will earn over Eur 7m following the acquisition this week of Irish theranoistic company Neutekbio by Danish biotechnology company Biomonitor. Growcorp Group is headed by founder Prof Michael Donnelly and Fintan Maher, former investment manager for Irelandia Investments, the family office for the Ryan family.
Growcorp is the largest shareholder in Neutekbio with 42%. As part of the consideration the Irish shareholders receive 6% of Biomonitor.
Growcorp was an early stage investor in Galway headquartered, Neutekbio and has invested Eur 3m since 2003. Growcorp also brought in Enterprise Equity and Western Development Corporation, each of whom invested Eur 1m. Enterprise Ireland and Millennium Entrepreneur Fund are shareholders with the balance held by employees.
Galway headquartered Neutekbio has developed a proprietary platform and products based on reporter gene technology. It was one of the first EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) bio technology operations to be licensed in Ireland. The technology was the result of collaboration between Neutekbio and CNRS, a French publicly funded research organisation, whose links were established by Growcorp.
Commenting on the development Prof Michael Donnelly, chairman, Growcorp Group, said, "Neutekbio has developed a very exciting technology but we needed an international partner to take it to the next stage of development. We are delighted to be retaining a stake in the future of this technology." He added that it was significant that the R&D would continue to be carried out in Galway. "Ireland's future is to develop world class R&D capabilities like this."
Neutekbio has developed cell-based assays and kits called iLiteTM. These assays and kits measure biological activity of cytokines such as Interferons and neutralizing antibodies to IFNs and TNFalpha antagonists. These assays are essential and very important for monitoring drug activity profile as well as the potential of immunogenicity of biopharmaceutical drugs throughout the entire development and post-marketing testing.
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