Arpida acquires Combio, raises CHF 33M
Anti-infective company Arpida (Basel, Switzerland) acquired chemistry company Combio (Copenhagen, Denmark) for an undisclosed amount of stock. The acquisition will more than double Arpida's medicinal chemistry capabilities and improve the company's ability to transition hits to leads, previously a strategic bottleneck for Arpida, according to CFO Harry Welten. The deal will increase Arpida's headcount to 73 from 48. Welten added that no layoffs are planned and Combio is expected to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary in Copenhagen.
In conjunction with the acquisition, Arpida raised CHF 33 million ($26.4 million) in an extension of its series C round, which had a first closing of CHF 51.3 million ($41.0 million) in May (see BioCentury Extra, Tuesday May 11, 2004). The October closing included new investors Carlsberg; Novo Nordisk (NVO) parent company Novo; Dansk Kapitalanlaeg; LD Pensions; Scandinavian Life Science Venture; China Development and Industrial Bank; the Industrial Bank of Taiwan; and undisclosed French investors. The company has raised a total of CHF 84.3 million in 2004. ...