The company, established in 1996, specialised in the discovery of novel polyketide therapeutics to create new medicines for serious diseases but entered administration after exhausting funding options.
The sales have been challenging as the assets sold include plant and machinery, patents and intellectual property as well as physical bacterial strains and were the result of a comprehensive marketing campaign to 96 companies worldwide. Two sales have been achieved in the US, one in Sweden and one in the UK.
The sales should ensure that the important work previously carried out by Biotica should continue and the sale in the UK should result in the new owners continuing the science.
Joint administrator, Chris McKay, a partner with McTear Williams & Wood , said: “The challenge with Bio-tech companies is understanding what it is that you have to sell and maintaining the team that can deliver the tech transfer. You have to be realistic about valuation as there is nearly always more investment required to commercialise the product.”
Although Cambridge is doing well in the current economic climate the challenges it faces are different as Chris McKay explains: “In Cambridge the focus is on research and development which requires several funding rounds. At each round the investors ask themselves is the research likely to deliver and if it isn’t the funding can stop pretty fast. This is a key risk that directors of such companies must consider because once the next round of funding starts to look unlikely their options narrow very quickly."
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Chris McKay can be contacted on 0800 085 5070 or email chrismckay@mw-w.com
McTear Williams & Wood has offices in Cambridge, Chelmsford, Ipswich, London and Norwich is East Anglia’s largest business rescue and insolvency firm with over 45 staff and specialists in banking, investigations, property and turnaround www.mw-w.com
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Administrator completes sales of assets of Biotica Technology Limited
28 March 2013
Following the administration of Biotica Technology Limited at the start of the year, the joint administrators are pleased to announce that four major sales of assets have achieved realisations that should provide significant returns to the Company’s creditors. The sales have raised almost £0.5m.