Arix Bioscience PLC (ARIX) Portfolio company Twelve Bio to be
acquired alongside USD85 million financing of Ensoma 05-Jan-2023 /
16:20 GMT/BST Dissemination of a Regulatory Announcement,
transmitted by EQS Group. The issuer is solely responsible for the
content of this announcement.
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Arix Bioscience plc
Portfolio company Twelve Bio to be acquired alongside USD85
million financing of Ensoma co-led by Arix to create best-in-class
engineered cell therapy platform
London, UK, 5 January 2023 - Arix Bioscience plc ("Arix" or the
"Company") (LSE: ARIX), a global venture capital company focused on
investing in breakthrough biotechnology companies, today announces
the agreement to acquire core portfolio company Twelve Bio in an
all-share transaction in connection with an USD85 million financing
of Ensoma. Arix co-led the Ensoma financing as a new investor,
investing USD9 million.
Twelve Bio is a gene editing company pioneering the therapeutic
application of next-generation CRISPR-Cas medicines. It was a
spun-out from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre for Protein
Research at the University of Copenhagen and Creation House
programme at Bio Innovation Institute, with Arix as the sole
investor in March 2021. Ensoma is a Boston-based genomic medicines
company developing one-time in vivo treatments that precisely
engineer any cell of the hematopoietic system.
Arix co-led the Ensoma financing alongside existing investor 5AM
Ventures. Other new investors include the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Solasta Ventures,
Catalio Capital Management and Mirae Asset. Other existing Ensoma
investors F-Prime Capital, Cormorant Asset Management, Viking
Global Investors, Takeda Ventures, Inc., SymBiosis, Alexandria
Venture Investments and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center also
participated.
Proceeds from the financing will enable Ensoma to advance the
development of its in vivo engineered cell therapy platform and
accelerate its pipeline of genomic medicines for immuno-oncology
and other therapeutic applications.
Robert Lyne, Chief Executive Officer of Arix, commented:
"Arix was instrumental in spinning out Twelve Bio and providing
the resources to enable the team to develop their technology to the
stage where it can play an exciting part in the future of gene
editing. The agreement to acquire Twelve Bio by Ensoma less than
two years after our original investment is a validation of our
focus on the most promising areas of biotechnology. We are
delighted to have co-led the concurrent financing alongside other
investors of the highest quality and look forward to supporting the
Ensoma team as they work to bring important new treatments to the
clinic."
Emile Nuwaysir, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of
Ensoma, said:
"Ensoma's platform will enable the next generation of smart
immune cell medicines to address complex diseases. With these
expanded capabilities, we can precisely engineer, in vivo, the
hematopoietic stem cell with DNA edits as small as one base pair or
as large as 35 kilobase insertions, with just a single intravenous
administration. That combined capability is unprecedented. In
addition, Ensoma now has the capital, expertise and committed
partners necessary to bring our breakthrough medicines to the
clinic. We look forward to welcoming the Twelve Bio team and their
world-class expertise to Ensoma and are immensely grateful to new
and existing investors for their support of Ensoma's mission to
democratize genomic medicines."
In connection with the financing, Arix takes a seat on the
Ensoma Board of Directors.
Closing of the acquisition of Twelve Bio is subject to the
satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including clearance
by the Danish Business Authority pursuant to Danish foreign direct
investment laws.
[ENDS]
For more information, please contact:
Arix Bioscience plc
+44 (0)20 7290 1050
ir@arixbioscience.com
Powerscourt Group
Sarah MacLeod, Ibrahim Khalil, Nick Johnson
+44 (0)20 7250 1446
arix@powerscourt-group.com
Notes to Editors
About Twelve Bio
Twelve Bio was co-founded in 2019 by Stefano Stella, Ph.D., and
Guillermo Montoya, Ph.D., based on research conducted at the Novo
Nordisk Foundation (NNF) Center for Protein Research at the
University of Copenhagen. With support from the Creation House
program sponsored by the BioInnovation Institute in Copenhagen and
seed investment from Arix Bioscience, Twelve Bio has advanced the
foundational insights from X-ray crystallography and cryogenic
electron microscopy to further engineer and evolve CRISPR-Cas12a
into wholly novel sequences with unique properties useful for a
range of DNA editing strategies. This engineering builds on the
natural advantages of Cas12a, including small size, high
specificity, multiplexing and ability to target sections of DNA not
amenable to other Cas nucleases. With the addition of this
world-class science to the existing Ensoma platform, the company
will be well-positioned to advance the field of genome engineering,
develop the next generation of genome editors with gene-writing
capabilities and create a new class of smart immune cell medicines
targeting rare and prevalent disease.
About Ensoma
Ensoma believes the future of medicine lies within us. The
company's EngeniousT platform combines innovative delivery
technology with the full DNA editing toolkit to tackle diseases
that affect millions around the world, such as cancer and
autoimmune disease, as well as inherited conditions. Ensoma is
supported by top-tier investors, a strategic collaboration with
Takeda and a passionate team committed to a bold, global vision for
genomic medicine. Ensoma is based in Boston. For more information,
visit www.ensoma.com.
About Arix Bioscience plc
Arix Bioscience plc is a global venture capital company focused
on investing in breakthrough biotechnology companies around
cutting-edge advances in life sciences.
We collaborate with exceptional entrepreneurs and provide the
capital, expertise, and global networks to help accelerate their
ideas into important new treatments for patients. As a listed
company, we are able to bring this exciting growth phase of our
industry to a broader range of investors.
www.arixbioscience.com
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ISIN: GB00BD045071
Category Code: PFU
TIDM: ARIX
LEI Code: 213800OVT3AHQCXNIX43
OAM Categories: 3.1. Additional regulated information required to be disclosed under the laws of a Member State
Sequence No.: 213737
EQS News ID: 1528835
End of Announcement EQS News Service
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