Pharmaceutical firm acquires Ireland development partner
MANCHESTER pharmaceutical company 4D pharma, a specialist in the development of live biotherapeutics, has announced the acquisition of Tucana Health.
Tucana, a start-up company from University College Cork in Ireland, was founded by Prof Fergus Shanahan and Prof Paul O’Toole to investigate the use of microbiome signature to aid the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, including those targeted by 4D, including cancer.
Following the acquisition, 4D pharma will continue to build on the research, investing in the platform and building further research capability based at the APC Microbiome Institute at UCC.
Initially, the focus will be on work on the diagnosis and patient stratification for irritable bowel syndrome (“IBS”).
Longer term the company will focus on building a diagnostic platform across multiple disease areas mirroring the programmes developed by MicroRx, 4D pharma’s therapeutic platform.
Duncan Peyton, 4D chief executive, said: “We continue to look at the developments within the microbiome and how best to apply these to enable 4D pharma to rapidly bring safe, efficacious therapies to patients.
“Having worked with the founders of Tucana and the APC, it was clear that together we combine the expertise and research at Tucana with 4D pharma’s MicroRx platform, research and therapeutic programmes to build what we believe will be a new direction in diagnostics.
“We believe the diagnostic platform developed will become an important part of patient care, giving health professionals an understanding of how, or more importantly whether, a patient will respond to a therapeutic regime; but also expanding the information within 4D pharma to understand and potentially address new therapeutic areas.”
The consideration will be satisfied by the issue of up to 1,410,603 4D pharma shares, with 410,603 shares to be issued upfront at a price of £7.55, being the average mid-market price of a 4D pharma share for the five business days immediately preceding completion of the acquisition.
