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Actis Biologics (ABPL), the Indian arm of US-based biotech drug discovery company Actis Biologics Inc, plans to raise about $30 million by selling stake to a clutch of private equity players to build two new plants and market a new process that will help other drug makers cut cost.
The company will sell a 15 per cent stake to US- and Europe-based leading private equity investors, Sanjeev Saxena, chairman and founder, ABPL, said. The sale may be completed in the next four weeks. Leading biotechnology companies such as Biocon and Avesthagen are selling stakes to private equity players and other investors to raise money to discover new potential drugs that can be self-marketed or out-licensed to multinational pharmaceutical and biotech companies, such as Pfizer, Roche, Astra Zeneca and Amgen. Private equity investors are keen to invest in drug discovery companies having a good pipeline of products since a successful new drug could reap more revenues from global sales. “We are in discussions with three syndicates of private equity players and will soon sign the deal with one of them,'' Saxena said without naming the investors. Sources said the deal would be structured to reduce a 15 per cent shareholding across shareholders of ABPL. Actis Biologics Inc holds 30 per cent equity in ABPL. The promoters' group led by Sanjeev Saxena has another 35 per cent, while contract research company Innovasynth holds 26 per cent and the rest is with private investors such as Walchand Industries. Actis Biologics and its parent company Actis Biologics Inc follow a unique model of floating separate incubation companies under their umbrella for various technologies and products under development, with ABPL holding a majority stake. Together, Actis is developing about six technologies, with a potential to develop about five products each in the near future. By the next year, the company plans to launch its first product, VFF2, a technology platform that can reduce the cost of manufacturing of several biotech drugs and food and beverage products by about 80 per cent, said sources. ABPL is developing Angiozyme, which it acquired from the Merck Group company Sirna Therapeutics a few years ago. The potential drug is used for the treatment of colon cancer and several other diseases. The drug will soon enter the last-stage clinical trials in Malaysia and India and later in the US. As reported earlier, F Hoffmann-La Roche, the Switzerland-based global pharmaceutical major, is already in talks with ABPL to either acquire or rope in strategic research and marketing alliance to access the rights of Angiozyme and other cancer drugs being developed by Actis Biologics . ABPL is also developing a gene therapy programme for the treatment of breast cancer and prostate cancer and is working with leading drug researchers in the US to develop an immuno-therapy programme that can fight infectious diseases like AIDS. |
Source: Business Standard