More European M & A

For the third week running, European companies did a bit of consolidating. Danish cancer play TopoTarget A/Sand U.K. cancer play Prolifix Ltd. said they will merge in a cash and stock transaction. The move follows on the announced combination of vaccine plays Berna Biotech Ltd. (SWX:BBIN, Berne, Switzerland) and Rhein Biotech N.V. (NMarkt:RBO, Maastricht, the Netherlands), and the acquisition of GenoVision AS (Oslo, Norway) by supplier Qiagen N.V. (NMarkt:QIA; QGENF), Venlo, the Netherlands) in the prior two weeks.

To secure the deal TopoTarget (Copenhagen, Denmark) raised DKK120 million ($15 million) from HealthCap and BankInvest. HealthCap also invested in Prolifix's last funding round of £4 million ($6.7 million) in 1999. ...