Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners’ BioDiscovery 3 portfolio company, GlycoVaxyn has been acquired by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in an all-cash transaction valuing the company at approximately USD212 million.
GlycoVaxyn, founded in 2004, is a spin out of the Swiss Polytechnic Institute of Zürich. It has developed a biological conjugation platform which enables the development of a new generation of conjugate vaccines against major bacterial infections. Vaccines this type are protecting children and adults against several infections among others pneumonia, meningitides, and the role of vaccination to prevent bacterial infections is becoming increasingly important with the development of resistance to antibiotic treatments.
The company which signed a major collaboration with GSK in 2012, is in Phase I with a vaccine candidate against E. coli infections and is expected to initiate a Phase I for a vaccine against Shigellosis in the US soon.
Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners led the series B round of Glycovaxyn in 2009.
Glycovaxyn was the second investment of BioDiscovery 3, a specialised life science investment fund managed by Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners. Raised in 2008, the Fund has invested from 2008 to 2012 in a portfolio of 14 companies. So far seven of these companies have been sold through private transactions, four have been listed on public financial markets, and the remaining three are still privately held active companies.
