Archimedes Raises £65 million for Leap to U.S.

 
• By Melanie Senior
  
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About a year after Novo A/S announced the launch of its Growth Equity Fund, the firm has found a home for its first significant investment, contributing £40 million of a £65 million ($100 million) round for privately-owned UK-based specialty pharma firm Archimedes Pharma. Participants describe this as the largest private European biopharma fundraising in the last 15 years.

About a year after Novo AS announced the launch of its Growth Equity fund, the firm has found a home for its first significant investment. On March 2, it contributed £40 million of a £65 million ($100 million) round for privately owned UK-based specialty pharma firm Archimedes Pharma Ltd., with private equity firm and long-time investor Warburg Pincus providing the balance. Participants describe this as the largest private European biopharma fundraising in the last 15 years. [See Deal] Archimedes plans to use the bolus of cash to commercialize its recently filed nasal spray PecFent (aqueous fentanyl citrate solution) for breakthrough cancer pain in both the Europe and the US, where the company hasn't been (or even planned to be) present, until now. The group concurrently announced the appointment of its new CEO and President, Jeffrey Buchalter, formerly CEO and president of US-based Enzon Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Novo's willingness to invest in Archimedes suggests that the low-risk specialty pharma model remains attractive to European investors with money...

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