Exit: Ipsen acquires ImCheck Therapeutics from EQT, Gimv and others

Paris/ Marseile/ Munich — Inves­tors announce that Ipsen (Euron­ext: IPN; ADR: IPSEY) has ente­red into a defi­ni­tive agree­ment to acquire its port­fo­lio company ImCheck Thera­peu­tics for EUR 350 million at closing in a tran­sac­tion valued at up to USD 1 billion.

EQT Life Scien­ces inves­ted in the company in 2017 as part of a consor­tium of inves­tors and has since provi­ded exten­sive support, inclu­ding at board level. GIMV is also part of the inves­tor consortium.

Vincent Brichard (photo © eqt), Venture Part­ner at EQT Life Scien­ces and board member at ImCheck Thera­peu­tics, said: “We are very proud to have supported ImCheck on its path to this signi­fi­cant acqui­si­tion by Ipsen. The tran­sac­tion unders­cores the strength of ImCheck’s plat­form and the company’s excep­tio­nal leader­ship and team. It is also a testa­ment to our ability to unco­ver hidden gems and support trans­for­ma­tive biotech companies.”

ImCheck Thera­peu­tics, based in Marseille, France, is pionee­ring the field of immuno-onco­­logy thera­pies by targe­ting buty­ro­phi­lins, a novel group of immu­no­re­gu­la­tory prote­ins. Its lead drug, ICT01, is curr­ently being tested in pati­ents with acute myeloid leuk­emia (AML) who are not suita­ble for stan­dard treat­ment. The initial results of the Phase I/II trial show promi­sing respon­ses. ICT01 is a first-in-class mono­clonal anti­body direc­ted against BTN3A, an important immu­no­re­gu­la­tory mole­cule that is widely expres­sed in many types of cancer. 

Pierre d’Epen­oux, CEO of ImCheck Thera­peu­tics, said: “This tran­sac­tion is an excep­tio­nal mile­stone for ImCheck and shines a spot­light on the pionee­ring science of French univer­si­ties. EQT Life Scien­ces’ support went far beyond finan­cing — their stra­te­gic advice and confi­dence in my leader­ship skills were criti­cal to our success.”

Toge­ther with the sale of Amolyt Pharma to Astra­Ze­neca in 2024, EQT Life Scien­ces has thus achie­ved two successful exits from its port­fo­lio as part of the “France 2030” invest­ment program — a govern­ment initia­tive to promote the most promi­sing French biotech inno­va­tions. This under­lines EQT Life Scien­ces’ exper­tise in iden­ti­fy­ing leading Euro­pean biotech compa­nies and deve­lo­ping them into global success stories. 

The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to be comple­ted by the end of the first quar­ter of 2026, subject to custo­mary closing condi­ti­ons, inclu­ding regu­la­tory appr­ovals in accordance with French and US regulations.

About EQT Life Sciences

EQT Life Scien­ces was foun­ded in 2022 follo­wing the inte­gra­tion of LSP, a leading Euro­pean venture capi­tal firm in life scien­ces and health­care, into the EQT plat­form. As LSP, the firm has raised more than EUR 3.0 billion (USD 3.5 billion) and supported the growth of over 150 compa­nies since it began inves­t­ing over 30 years ago. With a dedi­ca­ted team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment profes­sio­nals with back­grounds in medi­cine, science, busi­ness and finance, EQT Life Scien­ces is commit­ted to back­ing the brigh­test inven­tors whose ideas can make a real diffe­rence to pati­ents’ lives. — www.eqt.com

About ImCheck Therapeutics 

ImCheck Thera­peu­tics is deve­lo­ping a new gene­ra­tion of immu­no­the­ra­peu­tic anti­bo­dies targe­ting buty­ro­phi­lins, a novel super­fa­mily of immune modu­la­tors. By unlo­cking the poten­tial of γ9δ2 T cells, ImCheck’s inno­va­tive approach has the poten­tial to revo­lu­tio­nize treat­ments in the fields of onco­logy, auto­im­mune dise­a­ses and infec­tious diseases. 

The lead clini­­cal-stage program, ICT01, has advan­ced into late-stage clini­cal trials and demons­tra­tes a unique mecha­nism of action that modu­la­tes both innate and adap­tive immu­nity. These “first-in-class” acti­vat­ing anti­bo­dies may provide supe­rior clini­cal outco­mes compared to first-gene­ra­­tion immu­no­the­rapy approa­ches, parti­cu­larly in meaningful combi­na­ti­ons with immune check­point inhi­bi­tors and immu­no­mo­du­la­tory cancer drugs. In addi­tion, ImCheck’s pipe­line compounds are progres­sing towards clini­cal deve­lo­p­ment for auto­im­mune and infec­tious diseases. 

The company bene­fits from the pionee­ring rese­arch of Prof. Daniel Olive (Insti­tut Paoli Calmet­tes, INSERM, CNRS, Univer­sity of Aix-Marseille), a world-leading expert in γ9δ2‑T cells and buty­ro­phi­lins, as well as the exper­tise of an expe­ri­en­ced manage­ment team and the commit­ment of leading French, Euro­pean and US inves­tors, inclu­ding Kurma Part­ners, Eura­zeo, Bpifrance through its Inno­bio 2 and Large Venture funds, Andera Part­ners, Pfizer Ventures, Gimv, EQT Life Scien­ces, Early­bird, Welling­ton Part­ners, Pureos Bioven­tures, Invus, Agent Capi­tal, Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim Venture Fund, Alex­an­dria Venture Invest­ments and Blood Cancer United (previously LLS)®. — www.imchecktherapeutics.com