ACE Biosciences Divests Alphalyse in Management Buyout

ACE BioSciences A/S has announced that it has divested Alphalyse A/S, it’s wholly owned, fast track protein identification subsidiary, in a management buy-out. 
 
Under the terms of the agreement, three members of staff will leave ACE BioSciences to join Alyphalyse.

They include Dr Thomas Kofoed, formerly Head of Protein Identification at ACE BioSciences and Chief Operating Officer of Alphalyse, who will be Chief Executive Officer of the independent entity.
 
Ms Ingelise Saunders, ACE BioSciences’ CEO commented, "This move will ensure that both businesses receive the necessary focus, investment and management time to realize their full potential."

"ACE BioSciences is dedicated to the discovery and development of vaccines and antibodies to address infectious disorders."

"Our current therapeutic focus is travellers’ diarrhoea, where we are building a broad, competitive portfolio of projects by driving forward our internal research programmes and through the judicious in-licensing of clinical projects."

"Our Campylobacter vaccine, the first commercially available vaccine against this pathogen, will enter clinical trials in the 2nd quarter of 2006 and we are currently recruiting additional development staff to support this move."
 
"We are also working on a Streptococcus pneumonia vaccine, a project which we expect to partner by the end of 2005 and we are about to select lead candidates based on animal efficacy data."

"Our product pipeline is progressing on track and we plan to strengthen our discovery team, articularly in terms of our vaccine expertise, in the coming months."
 
Dr Thomas Kofoed, Chief Executive of Alphalyse commented, "This is a really exciting opportunity which will enable us to maximize the potential of our world-class protein identification service."

"In particular we want to expand on our unique Pick’n Post (P&P) Service: a postal protein identification option which is fast, secure, easy-to-use, and takes less than ten minutes for users to process."

"Alphalyse provides all the necessary kit and courier services for free, processes the results in less than a week and e-mails the outcome to customers: all at a very affordable price."

"We estimate that the total world market potential for P&P could be several million Euro per year."