Life Science Investing in Greece
Opportunities and Perspectives
Salvatore D’Orsa
Investment Director
Athens 17th June 2004
Merlin Biosciences Limited
33 King Street
St. James’
London, SW1Y 6RJ
Tel: +44 (0)20 7811 4000
Merlin Biosciences is regulated by FSA
Life Sciences in Greece: The Infrastructure
• 14 Universities operating in the fields of human and veterinary
diagnostics, therapeutic systems, immunology and bioinformatics
• 4 High quality scientific institutions:
• The Hellenic Pasteur Institute
• The Alexander Fleming Foundation for Basic
Biological Research
• The Institute of Molecular Biology and
Biotechnology
• The Ioannina Biomedical Research Institute
• 3 Science Parks :
• The Technology Park of Thessaloniki
• The Science and Technology Park of Crete
• The Patra Science Park
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Life Sciences in Greece: The Challenges
• Develop intellectual property protection
• Facilitate technology transfer
• Attract international private finance in competition
with European peers
• Retain skilled management
• Raise visibility: put Greece on the EU life sciences
map
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Market Update on the EU Biotech Sector
• UK Biotech Index up 25% in the last twelve
months
• IPO window is selectively open in some
countries
• Consolidation ongoing
• Good biotech companies are raising VC
finance
• Leading venture capital funds are raising
finance
• Funds still cautious in certain countries (i.e.
France and Germany)
Source: Bloomberg UK Biotech Index Jan 2003-Jun 2004
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Life Sciences in Greece: Investment Opportunities
• Drug discovery and development
• Speciality pharmaceuticals
• Generics
• Medical devices
• Diagnostics
• Enabling tools, IT and data services
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Life Sciences in Greece: Attractive for Venture Investing
Greek Development Law supports incentives in: *
– manufacturing innovative products
– providing high technology services
– software development
– R&D applications
In Biotechnology incentives are targeted to:
– hiring experienced R&D personnel
– developing incubators
– promoting industrial research
– commercialising applied R&D
– promoting technology transfer.
Source: ELKE, Hellenic Centre for Investment
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The Merlin Funds
Merlin is a specialist in life science venture capital managing funds in excess of €450m
Merlin committed
Fund I
1997 vintage
Fund II
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2000 vintage
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Fund III
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2002 vintage
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Merlin delivered
UK focus
Concept and early-stage
8-10 companies
5-7 year hold
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8 UK companies
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22 products in clinical trials
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6 are ready for exit
European focus
Early- to mid-stage
20-25 companies
3-5 year hold
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23 European companies
44 products in clinical trials
>11 are ready for exit
European focus
Mid- to late-stage
Value investing
8-10 companies
3-5 year hold
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6 European companies
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All good value
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All with revenue/uplift
The Merlin Venture Team
Professor Sir Christopher Evans OBE, DSc Chairman
Founder of Merlin in 1996 and has over twenty-five years
experience in life sciences. He was the founder of Chiroscience,
Celsis, Enzymatix, and several other companies.
Mr Jeff Iliffe Finance Director
Co-founder and Finance Director of Enviros Group Limited and the life sciences
corporate broking team at WestLB Panmure. He is a Chartered Accountant and
has a BSc Honours in Accounting and Financial Analysis from the University of
Warwick.
Mr Mark Clement Chief Executive
Co-founder and Finance Director of Celsis International plc and
has over twenty years in life sciences. He founded and ran a
corporate finance consultancy for several years, and is a
Chartered Accountant and Fellow of the Securities Institute. He
has a BSc Honours in Economics from the University of
Birmingham.
Mr Niilo Santasalo
Was a senior investment banker at PCA Corporate Finance and in business
development in life science companies. He has an MBA in Strategy and Finance
from Helsinki University of Technology, as well as a BSc (Eng) from Helsinki
Institute of Technology.
Mr Salvatore D'Orsa
Was a healthcare investment banking associate at Goldman
Sachs International. He also worked in the corporate headquarters
of SmithKline Beecham. He has an MBA from the Harvard
Business School and a BS with honours in Business
Administration from Bocconi University, Milan.
Dr Rony Douek
Was a Senior Associate at Apax Partners. He has also worked at Procter &
Gamble, for McKinsey and in the Investment Banking team of Goldman Sachs. He
has an MBA from the Harvard Business School, a PhD and MEng (Hons) in
Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London.
Mr Jason Rushton
Mark Docherty
Worked previously at Arthur Andersen and is a Chartered
Accountant. He has a BEng (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering
from Sheffield University.
Was a management consultant with PA Consulting in the Healthcare Group. He
also worked in drug discovery with Eli Lilly. He has an MSc in Immunology and a
BSc (Hons) in Anatomy from the University of Birmingham.
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Merlin Portfolio Company Examples
Drug development
Regenerative medicine
Performance Enhanced
Medicines
Cardiac monitoring
Reproductive healthcare
Vaccines
Vascular therapy
Chemical genomics
Cancer and chronic infectious
disease
Bio-therapeutics
Biomedical technology
DNA biopharmaceuticals
Drug discovery in
pain and obesity
Cancer vaccines
Anti-infectives
Cancer therapy
Drug delivery
Drug design
Pain management
Cancer therapeutics
Chemical proteomics
Antibody therapies
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Life Science Investing in Greece
Opportunities and Perspectives
Salvatore D’Orsa
Investment Director
Athens 17th June 2004
Merlin Biosciences Limited
33 King Street
St. James’
London, SW1Y 6RJ
Tel: +44 (0)20 7811 4000
Merlin Biosciences is regulated by FSA