Roche snaps up Glycart

Pharmaceutical giant Roche has boosted returns significantly at technology fund manager Quester by taking over portfolio company GlycArt for £104 million.

That represents five times the value of the business when Quester, which runs three VCTs, invested in November 2003.

Quester director Jonathan Gee commented: ‘This is a great result and also great news for GlycArt as it gives its product candidates and technologies the opportunity to realise their full potential.’

Swiss-based biotech concern GlycArt has developed technology that assists in the development of a new generation of antibody products. Theoretically this should generate ‘best-in-class’ therapies for diseases such as cancer, in which Roche specialises.

GlycArt, spun out of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in 2000, also has three monoclonal antibodies that could combat the deadly diseases in pre-clinical tests.

Quester has recently merged its first three VCTs.

Leslie Copeland

Leslie Copeland

Leslie was made Editor for Growth Company Investor magazine in 2000, then headed up the launch of Business XL magazine, and then became Editorial Director in 2007 for the online and print publication portfolio...

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