Finance, Grants, Deals

Polar Capital Holdings Plc, an investment management company with $3.9 billion under management, said it will launch the Polar Healthcare Opportunities Fund in December 2007.

Ark Therapeutics Group Plc, which is developing gene-based medicines, has raised a net £35.4 million with an “oversubscribed” placement of its London-listed shares.

Pharming Group NV, a Dutch biotech company with an orphan drug candidate for treating hereditary angioedema, said it has raised €70 million through a placement of five-year convertible notes bearing 6.875% annually.

Pronova BioPharma ASA, a Norwegian company that develops and sells omega-3 derived drugs, has completed an initial public offering (IPO) of its shares on the Oslo Stock Exchange worth about NOK 2.7 billion or €352 million.

Aitua Ltd, which provides seed money and early stage investments in life science companies, has invested £50,000 in ViraBiotech Ltd, a spin-out from the University of Warwick in the UK. An equal amount is being invested by the Spinner Matched Investment Fund, a partnership between Warwick and other universities in the West Midlands.

Market conditions for initial public offerings (IPOs) by biotech companies are about the same in Europe as they are in the United States, according to a survey of 200 biotech and investment executives.

Four French biotechnology companies made initial public offerings (IPOs) of their shares in the first nine months of 2007, double the number in each of the previous two years, according to the industry association, France Biotech.

Pronova BioPharma ASA, which has a patented method of extracting and concentrating omega-3 ethyl esters from fish oil, is having its shares listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange in an initial public offering (IPO) of 105,915,432 shares at a price of between NOK 23 and NOK 29 per share.

Omega Pharma NV is spinning out its professional health division, Arseus NV., with an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of 23.5 million shares on the Euronext in Brussels and Amsterdam.

Evotec AG has reached an agreement to acquire Renovis Inc of San Francisco, California, in an all stock transaction valued at about $151.8 million