Chiroscience Explained

Chiroscience Group Plc
Former Name:	Chiros
Traded As:	formerly on the London Stock Exchange
Fate:	Acquired by Celltech
Founded:	^[1]
Key People:	John Padfield

Chiroscience Group Plc was a British-based biotech company, founded by Christopher Evans. The company was taken over by Celltech in 1999, which was acquired in 2004 by UCB.

History

Chiroscience was born from the demise of the company Enzymatix, which was ultimately acquired by Genzyme,^[2] when Andrew Richards joined the company and convinced Evans and Peter Keen to launch Chiros, which name was quickly revised to Chrioscience.^[3] Seed funding for the company of was provided by Schroder Ventures, Apax and 3i. Chiroscience became one of the first biotechnology Initial Public Offerings in the United Kingdom in 1994.

In 1996, the company merged with the American biotech company Darwin Molecular Corporation, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, retaining Chiroscience as its name.^[4]

By the time of its merger with Celltech in 1999,^[5] both Chris Evans and Peter Keen had left the company, leaving Andrew Richards as the sole remaining founder and member of the original management board.

See also

• Chirocaine, an anesthetic developed by Chiroscience^{[6] [7]}
• Romosozumab, discovered by Chiroscience before its acquisition by Celltech
• Pharmaceutical industry in the United Kingdom

Further reading

• News: Chiroscience on the up. Datastream. May 8, 1996. The Guardian. December 24, 2018. London, England. 21. Newspapers.com. This shows performance of stock from May 1995 to May 1996.
• News: Market report. Murphy. Paul. April 26, 1996. The Guardian. December 24, 2018. London, England. 20. On Mr. Buffet's terms, Chiroscience is nothing more than a bag of dreams.. Paul Murphy (British journalist). Newspapers.com. Contains a graphic showing company stock performance across 1994 to 1996.

External links

• UCB Group website

Notes and References

1. Start year has been reported also as 1992. See Springett 1996 citation.
2. Encyclopedia: Genzyme Corp. International Directory of Company Histories. 2006. Encyclopedia.com.
3. News: Cream of life science entrepreneurs’ first venture was selling doughnuts. Quested. Tony. June 7, 2015. Business Weekly. December 24, 2018. Q Communications. Cambridge, England.
4. News: Chiroscience buys Darwin. Springett. Pauline. November 21, 1996. The Guardian. December 24, 2018. 22. Newspapers.com.
5. The companies were of roughly equal valuation when the merger took place.
6. News: Focus Chiroscience. . May 7, 1999. The Guardian. December 24, 2018. Guardian Newspapers, Ltd.. London, England.
7. News: Research is taming the 'bad side' of medicines. Choi. Audrey. November 16, 1995. Honolulu Star-Bulletin. December 24, 2018. Originally from The Wall Street Journal. 274. 84. A-9.