Cambridge, UK and Cambridge MA, USA, 2nd June 2014: As previously announced on 15 May 2014, Horizon Discovery Group plc (LSE: HZD), the international life science company supplying research tools and services to organizations engaged in genomics research and the development of personalized medicines, today announces it has completed the acquisition of the CombinatoRx service business (known as the combination high throughput screening (cHTS) business) and related assets from Zalicus Inc. (Nasdaq Global Market: ZLCS), a biopharmaceutical company that discovers and develops novel treatments for patients suffering from pain, for £4.74m ($8.0m USD).
The new business will become Horizon CombinatoRx Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of Horizon. Horizon CombinatoRx, Inc. will be located in 23,000 sq. ft. of laboratory and office space in Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA, providing a base for future growth of Horizon business operations in North America.
The acquisition provides access to the unique cHTS platform and Chalice™ analytics software, which enables the screening and analysis of thousands of complementary drug combinations. The platform will be combined with Horizon’s GENESIS™ (rAAV, CRISPR & ZFN) gene editing platform and X-MAN™ isogenic cell line technology to be able to offer services including novel phenotypic cell-based screens with compound siRNA, shRNA and sgRNA (for CRISPR based screening) libraries.
The assets acquired by Horizon, developed through a cumulative R&D investment of over $30 million, include:
- Two fully integrated robotic screening platforms optimized for combination screening
- Outstanding customer contracts
- The Chalice informatics platform
- A highly characterized library of approximately 800 cell lines
- An extensive compound and chemical probe library
Dr Darrin M Disley, Chief Executive Officer of Horizon Discovery Group plc commented: “The acquisition of the CombinatoRx service business not only gives Horizon a revenue generating, complementary business that has generated over $100 million of historical service revenue, but establishes Horizon in the heart of our key customer base in the East coast of the US. We look forward to unlocking the potential of the CombinatoRx business and integrating our own platform, which we believe will offer a truly unique set of services and capabilities to our customers.
“We are delighted to have completed this acquisition, within two months of our IPO, in line with the strategy outlined at our listing.”
About Horizon Discovery
Horizon is a revenue-generating life science company supplying research tools to organizations engaged in genomics research and the development of personalized medicines. Horizon has a diverse and international customer base approaching 800 organizations, including major pharmaceutical, biotechnology and diagnostic companies as well as leading academic research centers. The Company supplies its products and services into multiple markets, estimated to total in excess of £29 billion by 2015.
Horizon’s core capabilities are built around its proprietary translational genomics platform, GENESIS™, a high-precision and flexible suite of gene editing tools able to alter almost any endogenous gene sequence of human or mammalian cell-lines. Horizon has applied GENESIS™ to create over 550 X-MAN™ cell lines, accurately modeling the disease-causing mutations found in genetically based diseases. These ‘patients-in-a-test-tube’ are being used by customers to identify the effect of individual or compound genetic mutations on drug activity, patient responsiveness, and resistance, which may lead to the successful prediction of which patient sub-groups will respond to currently available and future drug treatments.
In addition, Horizon provides GENASSIST™ CRISPR and rAAV gene editing tools, custom cell line generation services for research and bioproduction applications, quantitative molecular reference standards, contract research and custom screening services, haploid cell lines (through Horizon’s partner Haplogen), and custom shRNA development services and off-the-shelf validated shRNA (through Horizon’s partner Sirion).
Horizon is headquartered in Cambridge, UK, and is listed on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market under the ticker “HZD”, for further information please visit: www.horizondiscovery.com
About cHTS
cHTS is an integrated and automated system of customized hardware and software for combination high throughput screening (cHTS™) in phenotypic mammalian cell based assays which allows exhaustive combination screening. Together with an analysis platform capable of recognizing and quantifying complementary drug combinations and integrating complex disease, pathway, target and drug information, the platform enables the discovery of specific combinations of drugs with the potential to treat serious diseases.
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Contacts:
Zyme Communications (Trade and Regional Media)
Katie Odgaard / Lorna Cuddon
Email: katie.odgaard@zymecommunications.com /lorna.cuddon@zymecommunications.com
Tel: +44 (0)7787 502 947 / +44 (0)7811 996 942
Consilium Strategic Communications (Financial Media and Investor Relations)
Amber Bielecka / Mary-Jane Elliott / Jessica Hodgson / Matthew Neal
horizon@consilium-comms.com
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3709 5701
Panmure Gordon & Co. (NOMAD)
Corporate Finance: Freddy Crossley / Duncan Monteith / Fred Walsh
Broking: Tom Salvesen/ Adam Pollock
Tel: +44 20 7886 2500
For further information from Zalicus Inc. please contact:
Justin Renz, CFO, Zalicus Inc.
Tel: +1 617-301-7575
JRenz@zalicus.com
Gina Nugent
Tel: +1 617-460-3579
gnugent@zalicus.com
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