Scientists’ bonanza as firm is sold for £815m

TWO Cambridge scientists will make millions of pounds after the cancer specialist they founded was sold to French drugs giant Sanofi for £815m.

Kymab, set up by Professor Allan Bradley and Dr Glenn Friedrich in 2010, is a spin-out from the Wellcome Trust’s Sanger Institute.

The company has agreed to be taken over by Sanofi. Shareholders will receive an upfront payment of £815m and potential further instalments worth £260m depending on whether targets are hit.

It means Bradley stands to get about £14m for his 1.7pc stake and Friedrich about £4m for his 0.5pc, according to records on Companies House. Filings show the Wellcome Trust also owns about 21.4pc and will get £175m.

Sanofi will gain the rights to Kymab’s KY1005 drug, an antibody therapy viewed as having the potential to treat a wide range of inflammatory disorders and immune-related diseases. It is still being tested in clinical trials.

Paul Hudson, Sanofi’s boss, said: ‘ The Kymab acquisition adds KY1005 to our dynamic pipeline, a potential first-in- class treatment for a range of immune and inflammatory diseases.’

The deal is also a major boost to investors in Neil Woodford’s former Patient Capital investment trust, now known as Schroder UK Public Private (SUPP). It is set to receive about £65m from the sale of cancer specialist Kymab. However it said £5m of this could be subject to clawback or delayed payment.

SUPP said it could receive as much as £20m more from the milestone payments as well.

The deal is expected to complete in the second half of this year.

A spokesman for Bradley and Friedrich declined to comment.