BioCentury
ARTICLE | Finance

Okairos is OK

VCs make 10X-plus on vaccine maker Okairos' 6-year journey from Merck to GSK

June 3, 2013 7:00 AM UTC

Okairos AG rewarded investors who helped spin the T cell vaccine developer out of Merck & Co Inc. (NYSE:MRK) in 2007. The €250 million ($323 million) that GlaxoSmithKline plc (LSE:GSK; NYSE:GSK) paid to acquire the biotech last week is giving the financiers better than a 10X return.

According to LSP-Life Sciences Partners' Joachim Rothe, the plan all along was to validate Okairos' technology and roll it right back into the arms of a pharma suitor...