Biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences agreed on Wednesday to acquire Denmark-based cancer treatment developer EpiTherapeutics for $65m in cash, giving an exit to pharmaceutical companies Novo, Merck and Lundbeck.
EpiTherapeutics is working on oncology drugs based on epigenetics, an area of therapeutics that focuses on enzymes involved in regulating cancer. Its technology comes out of research conducted at University of Copenhagen’s Biotech Research & Innovation Centre.
Novo acted as a founding investor in EpiTherapeutics in 2008 through its Novo Seeds unit, together with venture capital fund Seed Capital Denmark.
The company’s backers included Lundbeckfond Emerge, MS Ventures and Astellas Venture, respective corporate venturing subsidiaries of Lundbeck, Merck Serono and Astellas Pharma. It had raised about $9m in funding as of the end of 2010.
Norbert Bischofberger, Gilead’s chief scientific officer, said: “Epigenetics is a promising area of research and the EpiTherapeutics team is a recognised scientific leader in this field.
“This therapeutic class represents a strategic fit with our existing research portfolio, including the potential for novel combination approaches. We look forward to working with colleagues from EpiTherapeutics to advance these programs toward clinical development in diseases with significant unmet medical need.”