Venture capital group 3i, Enterprise Ireland and University College Cork have agreed to take a 46.8 per cent stake in EiRx Therapeutics, a recently established Irish biotechnology company. The promoters of EiRx Therapeutics, Dr Peter Daly and Prof Tom Cotter, planned in November 1997 to float Eirx Ltd - a different company to EiRx Technology - on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM). That company had a research programme in the field of apoptosis (cell death) but negative investment sentiment caused the plan to be scrapped.
EiRx Therapeutics, which will employ between five and nine workers in the first year, will also work to develop apoptosis technologies but will have a "different R & D programme", Dr Daly told The Irish Times. It has no plans to go public because Nasdaq needs companies with a market capital of $300 million, he added.
Dr Daly has a background in biotechnology while Prof Cotter is Professor of Biochemistry at UCC and is an authority in the field of apoptosis. The new company will be based in Cork and will work on technologies to modulate the process of apoptosis. "Aberrations in this programme are associated with a number of diseases including cancer in which cells are resistant to dying by this mechanism and other diseases in which too much death occurs. The control of this process holds much promise for therapy," the company said.
Mr Neil Graham, senior investment executive of 3i, said EiRx Therapeutics was "looking to develop new technologies that could have significant therapeutic potential". It is investing £1.2 million in two tranches over the first two years. The first tranche is £700,000 for a 22.5 per cent interest which values EiRx Therapeutics at £3.1 million. The second tranche, bringing 3i's stake up to 38.57 per cent, will be dependent on the achievement of a target.
Enterprise Ireland will pay £100,000 for a 3.2 per cent stake while UCC will have a 5 per cent stake at no cost, reflecting its contribution to research.
The founding shareholders, Dr Daly and Prof Cotter, will have a 46 per cent shareholding. Other management, including the chairman, Mr Peter Murray (former chairman of Ardagh), will have a 6.9 per cent stake.
