British Biotech offers £48m for Vernalis
consolidation with the news that British Biotech has made a £48
million (€73m) offer for Vernalis.
The UK biotechnology industry is gearing up for yet another bout of consolidation with the news that British Biotech has made a £48 million (€73m) offer for Vernalis. The offer comes less than three months after British Biotech merged with RiboTargets in a move intended to improve its pipeline and shore up its drug discovery capabilities.
The move would see British Biotech, with no products on the market but a cash pile of £51 million, gain access to Vernalis' migraine drug Frova (frovatriptan), which is already on sale in the USA and Europe.
Vernalis has been on the look-out for a means of adding to its dwindling cash reserves, and in May unveiled plans for a £16 million private placement of shares to help it cope with widening losses.
