f-star, an antibody engineering company developing novel antibodies and antibody fragments based on its unique Modular Antibody Technology, announced today that it has acquired future royalty obligations to New Century Pharmaceuticals (NCP) via a one-off payment.
Modular Antibody Technology was originally developed by Prof. Florian Rueker, one of f-star’s founders, in collaboration with NCP, a U.S. biopharmaceutical company. After f-star’s foundation, NCP became one of the Company’s common shareholders and had rights to future royalty payments. In the course of the transaction, f-star has now bought back these royalty obligations and TVM Capital, a transatlantic venture capital firm based in Munich and Boston, acquired NCP’s minority stake in f-star.
“We are very pleased that our technology is now essentially free of royalty obligations,”
Gottfried Himmler, CEO of f-star, commented on the transaction. “And we are delighted to have TVM Capital , one of the leading life science investors in Europe, joining f-star’s strong international investor syndicate.”
"It is an honor to become an investor in one of the leading next generation antibody companies and to join this distinguished syndicate", Axel Polack, General Partner TVM
Capital, commented.
About f-star
f-star is an antibody engineering company based in Vienna, Austria. The Company develops improved therapeutic antibodies and antibody fragments based on its Modular Antibody Technology, which allows the introduction of additional binding sites into antibodies and antibody fragments by engineering the non-CDR loops of constant or variable domains. Using Modular Antibody Technology, antibody fragments with antibody functionality and long half-life but much smaller size (Fcab™) or full antibodies with additional functionality (mAb squared) can be created.
f-star was founded by a team of experienced antibody engineering and biotech executives in 2006. Seed-financed by Austrian government agencies and Atlas Venture,
the Company recently closed a Series A financing round with Aescap Venture, Atlas Venture and Novo A/S and has raised EUR 13.0m in total so far. In its advisory board, the Company is supported by pioneers in the field of monoclonal antibodies. f-star has 18 employees at its headquarters in Vienna, Austria and recently opened a second research site in Cambridge, UK.
For more information, visit www.f-star.com
About the TVM Capital Life Science Practice
The TVM Capital Life Science Practice is, with EUR 900m (USD1.3bn) under management, one of the largest investors in venture and growth deals in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals in Europe, with a strong presence in the U.S. and a growing presence in Asia. The Life Science team builds on the expertise, experience, international approach and demonstrated success in more than 100 previous investments and more than 30 IPOs from its biotechnology and pharmaceutical portfolio of companies.
For more information, visit www.tvm-capital.com
Company contact:
Dr. Eugen Stermetz, CFO
f-star Biotechnologische Forschungs- und Entwicklungs-GmbH
+43-72055-4215 Gastgebgasse 5-13 A-1230 Vienna, Austria
Media contact:
Frank Butschbacher Investor Relations & Communications
+43-650-78 44 940