GIMV invests USD 2 million in US biotech company ChemoCentryx - GIMV achieves EUR 6.5 million capital gain in 2004 on further sale of its stakes in Aclara Biosciences, Crucell and Exelixis
GIMV is investing USD 2 million in US biotech company ChemoCentryx. GIMV’s investment is part of a larger USD 33 million financing round, with both Alta Partners and GIMV as new investors. ChemoCentryx will use the capital injection for further clinical development of novel, innovative medicines that target Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and other disorders.

During the first 5 months of 2004 GIMV’s Life Sciences business unit posted capital gains totalling EUR 6.5 million on the sale of its participations in listed companies as Aclara Biosciences, Crucell and Exelixis.


GIMV is investing in a new USD 33 million financing round for the US company ChemoCentryx

GIMV is investing USD 2 million in US company ChemoCentryx. This investment is part of a second financing round, which has collected in all USD 33 million from both new (GIMV and Alta Partners) and existing (HBM Partners, HealthCap, Orbimed, Pictet and Techne) investors.

ChemoCentryx is a leading late-stage biotech company in research and development into the chemokine network (signaling molecules), which plays a crucial role as an immune system regulator. The company will be using the capital injection for further clinical development of novel, innovative medicines that target Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and other disorders.

(Futher information on ChemoCentryx can be found on www.chemocentryx.com.)

GIMV has already achieved EUR 6.5 million of capital gains in 2004 on the sale of its stakes in Aclara Biosciences, Crucell and Exelixis

GIMV has sold its remaining stakes in listed companies Aclara Biosciences [NASDAQ: ACLA], Crucell [Euronext: CRXL] and Exelixis [NASDAQ: EXEL] with a total capital gain of EUR 6.5 million. This capital gain is included in the previously announced total of EUR 158.3 million of capital gains for the first 5 months of 2004. The total historical capital gains on the sale of these three life sciences participations amount to EUR 21.4 million.

“Favourable market conditions for publicly quoted biotech companies and positive developments at Aclara Biosciences, Crucell and Exelixis have led to the almost complete disposal of our listed biotech portfolio. The only remaining listed company in our diversified life sciences portfolio is Memory Pharmaceuticals [NASDAQ: MEMY], which was introduced onto NASDAQ in April”, explains Patrick Van Beneden, Vice-President of GIMV’s Life Sciences business unit. Originally, these 4 shareholdings were private equity investments, but got a public character after their IPO.

“Memory Pharmaceuticals is developing new medicines for treating, among other things, Alzheimer’s disease. Memory Pharmaceuticals has a very promising pipeline with great potential. We have no intention of selling our shares in Memory Pharmaceuticals as soon as the lock-up period is over, as recently suggested in the press. We are convinced that Memory Pharmaceuticals has considerable growth potential. GIMV is an investor with a long-term vision, which is very important in this sector. The biotech sector is highly cyclical in character and the period between initial investment and realisation can often be long, unpredictable and capital intensive,” according to Senior Investment Manager GIMV-Life Sciences Jim Van heusden, Phd.


For more information, please contact:- Mr. Frank De Leenheer – Investor Relations Manager GIMV Tel. +32 3 290 22 18 – E-mail: frankdl@gimv.be-