Ysios Capital Partners launches first divestment after Amgen purchase of Biovex for 1,000 million dollars
Investors in the Ysios BioFund I will see the first returns on their investment, many before the 5 to 7 years that constitute the average in the venture capital sector.
BY BIOCAT
Ysios Capital Partners, the Spanish venture capital firm specializing in biotechnology and medical technology investments, will launch their first divestment, selling their stake in the Ysios BioFund I to BioVex (USA) after this company was acquired by Amgen for 1,000 million dollars. BioVex currently has two biological compounds in the clinical development phase: OncoVex, an oncolytic vaccine that could be a new strategy to treat melanoma and other solid tumors, and ImmunoVex, a vaccine for genital herpes.
This will be the first divestment carried out by Ysios, which participated in the BioVex round of funding that raised 70 million dollars alongside four international investors –Morningside Venture, MVM Life Science Partners, Ventech and Sectoral Asset Management– fourteen months ago. Specialized investors also participated in this operation, including Forbion, Scottish Equity Partners, Credit Agricole Private Equity and other American investors.
The Board of Administrations for each of the companies have agreed that the operation will be formalized over the coming weeks.
According to Joël Jean Mairet, who is in charge of the BioVex investment and a founding partner at Ysios, "the fact that BioVex has attracted the interest of a company like Amgen in such a short period of time confirms our investment policy and the importance of having shared goals and working with other specialized investors. The excellent management carried out at BioVex over this period can be seen in their business plan and the interest that has been shown in their most advanced drug, OncoVex, which is currently in two Phase III clinical studies for metastasized melanoma and head and neck cancer. This drug is expected to go on the market some time in the next few years.” All the investors have collaborated intensely over the past months, “contributing not only financial resources but also the know-how and quality contacts that only a network of specialized investors and experts on the sector in which they invest could provide,” explained Mairet.
Ysios Capital Partners is made up of a team of eight professional experts in venture capital and the creation and development of companies in the healthcare and biotechnology fields. Ysios partners are Joël Jean-Mairet, ex-CEO of Glycart Biotechnoloy AG; Julia Salaverria, ex-director of Funds for Talde, and Josep Lluís Sanfeliu, ex-executive in the Department of Corporate Finance and Business Development at Almirall. In 2008, Ysios set up the largest venture capital fund specializing in biotechnology and medical technology in Spain, the Ysios BioFund I, which has assets of 69 million dollars.