Artios Pharma completes £65m financing

RNS Number : 4416X

IP Group PLC

10 August 2018

 

FOR RELEASE ON

10 August 2018

IP Group plc - Portfolio company Artios Pharma completes £65m financing

IP Group plc (LSE: IPO) ("IP Group" or "the Group"), the developer of intellectual property-based businesses, is pleased to note that its portfolio company Artios Pharma Limited ("Artios" or "the Company"), has announced the completion of a £65 million Series B financing.

The financing, which was significantly oversubscribed, was led by Andera Partners (formerly EdRIP) and LSP (Life Sciences Partners), with participation by additional new investors Pfizer Ventures and Novartis Venture Fund (NVF). Artios' existing shareholders (IP Group, Arix Bioscience, SV Health Investors, M Ventures and AbbVie Ventures) also participated in the round.

Artios, a leading DNA Damage Response (DDR) company developing innovative new treatments for cancer, is actively developing a pipeline of highly promising first-in-class DDR therapies identified from a global network of leading researchers in the DDR field, including through Cancer Research UK. The inhibition of novel DNA repair targets like Polθ, in tumours where DNA damage response factors have been lost or down regulated, will lead to cancer cells being selectively killed without harming normal cells. This creates an opportunity for such products to be used both in monotherapy and in combination with existing and future cancer therapies.

IP Group has committed to invest a total of £5.0 million of the round, which is tranched and subject to the achievement of certain milestones. The Group has invested £2.3 million in the first tranche of the fundraising.

For more information, please contact:

IP Group plc	www.ipgroupplc.com
Alan Aubrey, Chief Executive Officer Greg Smith, Chief Financial Officer Liz Vaughan-Adams, Communications	[phone] [phone]/[phone]
Charlotte Street Partners
Andrew Wilson	[phone]
Martha Walsh	[phone]

Notes for editors

About IP Group

IP Group is a leading intellectual property commercialisation company which focuses on evolving great ideas, mainly from its partner universities, into world-changing businesses. The Group has pioneered a unique approach to developing these ideas and the resulting businesses by providing access to business building expertise, capital (through its 100%-owned FCA-authorised subsidiaries IP Capital and Parkwalk Advisors), networks, recruitment and business support. IP Group has a strong track record of success and its portfolio comprises holdings in early-stage to mature businesses across life sciences and technology. IP Group is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange under the code IPO.

Group holdings in portfolio companies reflect the undiluted beneficial equity interest excluding debt, unless otherwise explicitly stated.

For more information, please visit our website at www.ipgroupplc.com.

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