Chiroscience

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.

Chiroscience Group Plc
Formerly
Chiros
Traded asformerly on the London Stock Exchange
Industrypharmaceutical industry 
FateAcquired by Celltech
Founded1991 (1991)[1]
Founder
Defunct1999 (1999)
Key people
John Padfield CEO, 1996[2]

History

Chiroscience was born from the demise of the company Enzymatix, which was ultimately acquired by Genzyme,[4] when Andy Richards joined the company and convinced Evans and Peter Keen to launch Chiros, which name was quickly revised to Chrioscience.[3] Seed funding for the company of GB£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 Andy Richards as the sole remaining founder and member of the original management board.[3]

See also

References and notes
  1. Start year has been reported also as 1992. See Springett 1996 citation.
  2. Springett, Pauline (November 21, 1996). "Chiroscience buys Darwin". The Guardian. p. 22. Retrieved December 24, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. 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. 84 (274). Originally from The Wall Street Journal. p. A-9. Retrieved December 24, 2018.

Further reading
  • Datastream (May 8, 1996). "Chiroscience on the up". The Guardian. London, England. p. 21. Retrieved December 24, 2018 – via Newspapers.com. This shows performance of stock from May 1995 to May 1996.
  • Murphy, Paul (April 26, 1996). "Market report". The Guardian. London, England. p. 20. Retrieved December 24, 2018 – via Newspapers.com. On Mr. Buffet's terms, Chiroscience is nothing more than a bag of dreams. Contains a graphic showing company stock performance across 1994 to 1996.


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