Forbion Announces Closing of Initial Public Offering of Portfolio Company uniQure

From early investment to exit, uniQure exemplifies Forbion model for identifying world-leading research and active management involvement

NAARDEN, The Netherlands--()--Forbion Capital Partners, the leading Dutch VC firm investing in world-class healthcare technologies, is proud to announce that its portfolio company uniQure N.V. (uniQure or the company) has closed its initial public offering of ordinary shares at an initial public offering price of $17.00 per ordinary share. uniQure's ordinary shares are listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market and began trading under the symbol "QURE" on February 5, 2014. Jefferies LLC and Leerink Partners LLC acted as joint book-running managers and Piper Jaffray & Co. acted as lead manager for the offering.

uniQure is a leader in the field of gene therapy and has developed the first and currently only gene therapy product to receive regulatory approval in the European Union. Its first product, Glybera, was approved by the European Commission in October 2012 under exceptional circumstances for the treatment of a subset of patients with lipoprotein lipase deficiency, or LPLD, a potentially life-threatening, orphan metabolic disease. uniQure is developing a pipeline of additional gene therapies through multiple collaborations that are designed to accelerate the development and commercialization of these programs. Forbion invested in uniQure in April 2012 after helping to establish the company in order to continue the activities of Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics (AMT) Holding N.V.

The uniQure investment story exemplifies Forbion’s long-term approach to building the platform technologies of the future, based on identifying potential medical break-throughs at an early stage. Forbion has also been heavily involved at the management level; over time, Forbion’s Managing Partner Sander van Deventer has been a co-founder, interim-CEO and board member of uniQure, while Sander Slootweg, Managing Partner at Forbion, has been its Chairman and non-executive board member. Philip Astley-Sparke, former CEO and President of Biovex Group, Inc. and a Forbion Venture Partner, is currently President US at uniQure. This level of hands-on involvement is typical of how Forbion actively works with its companies to facilitate their growth and success.

Examples of other exits by Forbion portfolio companies include:

  • Circulite. Inc. to Heartware (HTWR) - Forbion were founders of the company and lead investor since 2004 as well as most significant investor at the time of exit,
  • Biovex to Amgen - exit value of up to USD 1 billion. Forbion was the largest investor as well as lead investor since 2005
  • PanGenetics to Abbott - Forbion was lead investor of its series B financing round
  • Fovea Pharmaceuticals to Sanofi - Forbion was lead investor of this company’s series B financing round as well.

Recent Forbion portfolio successes also include the listing of bluebird bio, Inc. (BLUE) in the summer of 2013, the reverse merger of Transave with Insmed, Inc (INSM) and the substantial regional rights deal of Xention with Servier closed last year.

These exits show the maturity of Forbion as a firm and of its portfolio. Since inception, Forbion has launched two main funds, two Co-Investment funds, and two JV funds with BioGeneration Ventures. As a result, Forbion currently manages well over EUR 450 million in assets. Most recently, Forbion has announced raising a new main fund, Forbion Capital Fund III, which targets investments in drug-, device- and diagnostics companies that develop tomorrow’s technologies and products that will greatly improve the quality of patients’ lives.

A registration statement relating to the ordinary shares of uniQure was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 4, 2014. The uniQure offering was made only by means of a prospectus, copies of which may be obtained from Jefferies LLC, Attention: Equity Syndicate Prospectus Department, 520 Madison Avenue, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10022, or by email at Prospectus_Department@Jefferies.com, or by phone at 877-547-6340; or from Leerink Partners LLC, Attention: Syndicate Department, One Federal Street, 37th Floor, Boston, MA 02110, or by email at Syndicate@Leerink.com, or by phone at 800-808-7525.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of, any securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

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About Forbion Capital Partners

Forbion Capital Partners is a dedicated Life Sciences venture capital firm with offices in Naarden, The Netherlands, and Munich, Germany. Forbion invests in life sciences companies in drug discovery & development as well as medical device companies addressing substantial unmet medical needs. Forbion’s investment team of nine investment professionals has built an impressive performance track record since the late nineties with successful investments in Rhein Biotech, Crucell, Neutec, Glycart, Borean, Impella, Alantos, Acorda, Fovea, PanGenetics, Argenta Discovery and most recently Biovex and Pathway Medical. Current assets under management exceed $550m, split between four active funds and comprising some 29 promising portfolio companies. Forbion Capital Partners Fund II is supported by the European Investment Fund through its ERP and LfA facilities. Forbion co-manages Biogeneration Ventures, an early stage fund focused on (academic) spin-outs and seed investments in the Netherlands. For more information, please visit www.forbion.com.

Contacts

For further information please contact
Sander Slootweg
Forbion Capital Partners
+31-35-699-3015
Sander.Slootweg@forbion.com
or
Instinctif Partners (on behalf of Forbion)
Melanie Toyne Sewell / Robert Mayer / Cora Kaiser
+44-20-7457-2029
forbion@instinctif.com

Contacts

For further information please contact
Sander Slootweg
Forbion Capital Partners
+31-35-699-3015
Sander.Slootweg@forbion.com
or
Instinctif Partners (on behalf of Forbion)
Melanie Toyne Sewell / Robert Mayer / Cora Kaiser
+44-20-7457-2029
forbion@instinctif.com