Dutch firms IntroGene and U-BiSys merge

Two Netherlands-based biopharmaceutical companies, IntroGene BV andU-BiSys BV, have announced plans to merge, creating a new company, Crucell, which will have 150 employees and be headquartered at the Leiden BioScience Park. Financial details are not disclosed. IntroGene president and chief executive Dinko Valerio will take on the same post in Crucell, while U-BiSyS founder and chief executive Ton Logtenberg will become chief scientific officer.

Crucell will integrate IntroGene's existing human cell line expression platform, PER.C6, and U-BiSys' phage antibody-display library technology, which enables the creation of fully-humanized monoclonal antibodies. A company statement notes that PER.C6 has been widely adopted by the pharmaceutical industry, with licensing agreements signed with Merck & Co, Glaxo Wellcome/SmithKline Beecham, Novartis (through its Systemix subsidiary), Aventis, Schering AG, Genzyme Corp, Pfizer/Warner-Lambert, Transgene SA, Oxford BioMedica, BioHeart Inc and ML Therapeutics/ Cobra.

Crucell will continue to license its core technologies to commercial partners, and will also utilize these for the development of proprietary products in the therapeutic areas of cancer, infectious diseases (vaccines) and cardiovascular diseases. The companies also state that they have collectively raised around 50 million euros ($46.9 million) from leading international venture capitalists.