Chiroscience

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Chiroscience Group Plc
FormerlyChiros
formerly on the London Stock Exchange
Founded1991;34 years ago (1991) [1]
Founder
Defunct1999 (1999)
FateAcquired by Celltech
Key people
John Padfield CEO, 1996 [2]

Chiroscience Group Plc was a British-based biotech company, founded by Christopher Evans. The company was taken over by Celltech in 1999, [3] which was acquired in 2004 by UCB.

Contents

History

Chiroscience was born from the demise of the company Enzymatix, which was ultimately acquired by Genzyme, [4] when Andrew Richards joined the company and convinced Evans and Peter Keen to launch Chiros, name of which was quickly revised to Chrioscience. [3] Seed funding for the company of £3 million was provided by Schroder Ventures, Apax and 3i. [3] Chiroscience became one of the first biotechnology Initial Public Offerings in the United Kingdom in 1994. [3]

In 1996, the company merged with the American biotech company Darwin Molecular Corporation, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, retaining Chiroscience as its name. [2]

By the time of its merger with Celltech in 1999, [5] both Chris Evans and Peter Keen had left the company, leaving Andrew Richards as the sole remaining founder and original board member. [3]

See also

References and notes

  1. Start year has been reported also as 1992. See Springett 1996 citation.
  2. 1 2 Springett, Pauline (November 21, 1996). "Chiroscience buys Darwin". The Guardian. p. 22. Retrieved December 24, 2018 via Newspapers.com.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Quested, Tony (June 7, 2015). "Cream of life science entrepreneurs' first venture was selling doughnuts". Business Weekly. Cambridge, England: Q Communications. Retrieved December 24, 2018.
  4. "Genzyme Corp". International Directory of Company Histories. 2006 via Encyclopedia.com.
  5. The companies were of roughly equal valuation when the merger took place.
  6. "Focus Chiroscience". The Guardian. London, England: Guardian Newspapers, Ltd. May 7, 1999. Retrieved December 24, 2018.
  7. Choi, Audrey (November 16, 1995). "Research is taming the 'bad side' of medicines". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Vol. 84, no. 274. Originally from The Wall Street Journal. p. A-9. Retrieved December 24, 2018.

Further reading