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Danish diagnostics company receives millions to boost internationalisation
24-07-2008
Companies:
The small Danish biotechnology company Biomonitor has received a capital injection of Eur 3 billion from the venture capital company Sunstone Capital A/S, which estimates that Biomonitor is able to capture 5 per cent of the USD 800 million market, writes Børsen Business Daily.
The five year old Copenhagen company has developed a method to trace formation of antibodies in biological medicines. Biological medicines are a new generation of protein medicines, produced by living cells. This means that patients often create antibodies that remove the effect of the medicine and thereby the treatment. By using the new method it is easy to change the patient’s medicine to one with the desired effect.
“So far our growth has been organic. We have not had the strength to make it big. However, with the present capital injection we can now challenge the international market,” says Arsalan Kharazmi, CEO of Biomonitor.
Sunstone Capital believes that Biomonitor’s timing is perfect because authorities and physicians are beginning to pay special attention to the antibody problematics with biological medicine treatments.
“Moreover Biomonitor is an international first mover. Therefore, we believe the company can reach a market share of 5 per cent corresponding to a turnover of approximately USD 35 million within 4-5 years,” says partner Søren Lemonius from Sunstone Capital.
Today, exist about 200 biological medicines and around 300 biological medicines are under development. Biomonitor and Sunstone Capital estimate that testing for antibodies will have considerable influence on the patients’ treatments and the economy in general.