Albion Ventures LLP (‘Albion Ventures’), one of the largest independent venture capital investors in the UK, has today announced the sale of its stake in Haemostatix Limited (‘Haemostatix’) to Ergomed plc (‘Ergomed’).

Ergomed is acquiring 100 per cent of the issued share capital of Haemostatix for an initial consideration of £8.0 million, with contingent consideration of a further £20.0 million. Ergomed is acquiring Haemostatix from a group of UK-based VC investors including Albion Ventures, Catapult Ventures, Esperante, as well as Nesta and the Wellcome Trust.

Nottingham based Haemostatix is developing first-in-class topical clotting agents. Haemostatix is a spin-out of the University of Leicester.  The technology is based on a novel class of molecule that binds directly to fibrinogen to promote haemostasis and is targeted at the global surgical bleeding market, worth more than $2 billion.

The two lead products developed by the Haemostatix team are PeproStat (Phase IIb ready), a blood-free, ready-to-use topical liquid haemostat which is applied to wounds to control bleeding during surgery, and ReadyFlow (pre-clinical), a blood-free, ready to use, transparent and flowable haemostatic gel packaged in a pre-filled syringe.

 Christoph Ruedig, Partner at Albion Ventures said: “Haemostatix has a world-class team and technology.  We are excited that it now has a strong corporate partner who will support it in the future development process. We wish the team the best of luck and look forward to seeing the business fulfil its huge potential.”

Miroslav Reljanovic MD, Chief Executive Officer of Ergomed plc, said:  “The Haemostatix acquisition provides an opportunity to advance our growth strategy through the development of our first proprietary development programme] I have confidence from the current pre clinical and clinical data that the Haemostatix technology works as an effective haemostat.  This combined with the rapid development and attractive market potential makes the acquisition a great extension of our co-development portfolio.

JSB-Partners, which offers investment banking and advisory services to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, acted as an advisor to Haemostatix Ltd on this transaction.