Oxford, UK: August 4, 2022: Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE), the independent investment company created to found, fund and build transformational businesses via its unique partnership with the University of Oxford, is pleased to announce its life sciences portfolio company MiroBio is to be acquired by the global biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences for approximately $405 million in cash, subject to customary adjustments.
MiroBio was spun out of the University of Oxford in 2019 to develop a new class of medicines, called immune checkpoint agonists, to treat autoimmune diseases by restoring balance to the immune system. The company was co-founded by OSE and Tim Funnell, OSE’s Entrepreneur in Residence at the time, and Samsara BioCapital, working closely with MiroBio’s scientific founders – Simon Davis, Professor of Molecular Immunology, MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, and Richard Cornall, Nuffield Professor of Clinical Medicine.
OSE has backed MiroBio since inception, providing strategic and operational support as well as funding. OSE co-led MiroBio’s £27 million Series A investment with Samsara BioCapital in 2019, bringing in several other top tier global life science investors. The company also participated in MiroBio’s recent £80 million Series B round, led by Medicxi, which further strengthened its global investor base.
Following its acquisition by Gilead, MiroBio will continue its operations in Oxford, UK.
Combining MiroBio’s innovative technology with that of a world-leading company should allow its pipeline to truly flourish. This is a great example of our model in action
Katya Smirnyagina, Senior Partner, Life Sciences at OSE, said:
“OSE is proud to have played a key role in the creation of MiroBio and to have supported its successful development through to its acquisition by Gilead. Combining MiroBio’s innovative technology with that of a world-leading company should allow its pipeline to truly flourish. This is a great example of our model in action, where OSE has worked with leading Oxford academics to set their breakthrough science on a trajectory to where it can have a positive impact – in this case to develop much-needed new therapies for patients with debilitating autoimmune diseases. We are delighted with the outcome, not just for the founders and everyone at MiroBio, but also because it provides us with a strong return on our investment, providing additional funds to re-invest into Oxford spinouts.”
Closing of the transaction is subject to expiration or termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act and other customary conditions.
View the full press release at Gilead’s news page.
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Notes to Editors
About MiroBio
MiroBio is a clinical-stage private biotechnology company whose mission is to develop a new class of therapeutic agents, checkpoint agonist antibodies, to restore immune balance in autoimmune patients. MiroBio has developed I-ReSToRE, a proprietary discovery platform, combining its Checkpoint Atlas™, a cutting-edge receptor mapping database and visualization tool, with proprietary antibody engineering. It was spun out of Oxford University in 2019 and is based on more than 15 years of foundational research from the labs of Professor Simon Davis and Professor Richard Cornall with the potential to create safer and more efficacious medicines for patients with autoimmune disease. MiroBio is backed by a strong group of international investors including Oxford Science Enterprises, Samsara BioCapital, SR One, Medixci, Advent Life Sciences, OrbiMed and Monograph.
For more information on MiroBio, please visit the company website: https://www.mirobio.com/
About Oxford Science Enterprises
Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE) is an independent, billion-pound investment company, created in 2015 to found, fund and build transformational businesses via our unique partnership with the University of Oxford, the world’s #1 research university.
This partnership enables us to work with the brightest academic minds tackling the world’s toughest challenges and guarantees us unrivalled access to their scientific research. In collaboration with our global network of entrepreneurs and advisors, we go well beyond funding to we shape and nurture these complex ideas into successful businesses.
Actively focused on a core portfolio of around 40 companies spanning three high-growth, high-impact sectors – Life Sciences, Health Tech, Deep Tech – we adopt a flexible, long-term investment approach, recognising the path from ground-breaking research to global markets takes time and resilience.
To date, we have invested £0.5 billion in over 80 ambitious companies built on Oxford science, helping progress 28 from seed to Series A, and 22 to Series B and beyond, including 2 IPOs and 7 trade sales. A key player in Oxford’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, we are highly motivated to foster an environment that catalyses pioneering research and steers it to commercial success. We are committed to doing this in an inclusive and sustainable way.