Vaccines tsar sells start-up to US pharma group Merck in £2.4bn deal
Biotech deal: Dame Kate Bingham (pictured) led Britain’s Covid vaccine task force in early 2020
A British biotech company co-founded by the Government’s vaccines tsar has been sold to an American pharma group for £2.4billion.
Dame Kate Bingham’s eye diseases treatment firm EyeBio has been snapped up by Merck for £1biliion.
Another £1.36billion depends on meeting targets. Bingham led Britain’s Covid vaccine task force in early 2020 and is the chairman of EyeBio.
Her venture capital firm SV Health Investors set up the business with scientists David Guyer and Anthony Adamis.
It is developing a drug to treat the most significant forms of blindness affecting more than 200m people.
Bingham said it could be ‘a multibillion-dollar therapy’ and a ‘potential health game-changer’.
She said the deal, three years after it was founded, was a vote of confidence in UK biotech.
Merck last year bought immunologist Prometheus Biosciences for £8.6billion.
