Biotech deal: Dame Kate Bingham (pictured) led Britain’s Covid vaccine taskforce in early 2020
A British biotech company co-founded by the Government’s vaccine tsar has been sold to a US pharmaceutical group for £2.4bn.
Merck has acquired eye disease treatment company EyeBio from Dame Kate Bingham for £1 billion.
A further £1.36bn depends on meeting targets. Bingham led the British Covid vaccines task force in early 2020 and is the chairman of EyeBio.
His venture capital firm, SV Health Investors, founded the company with scientists David Guyer and Anthony Adamis.
It is developing a drug to treat the most important forms of blindness that affect more than 200 million people.
Bingham said it could be “a multibillion-dollar therapy” and a “potential game-changer in health.”
He said the deal, three years after it was founded, was a vote of confidence in UK biotech.
Last year, Merck bought immunologist Prometheus Biosciences for £8.6bn.