Introducing Europe's first drug discovery & biotech SPAC

A new major player in biotech and drug discovery has launched in Europe with the aim of becoming a one-stop boutique manufacturing network for companies that need smaller batches of medicines.

The company, eureKING, is a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), with plans to raise €150 million, and is the continent's first "blank cheque" company specifically focused on hoovering up companies that produce medicines for the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors.

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As a SPAC, it is a publicly listed shell company which exists with the purpose of raising funds to merge with a private company, thus going public whilst avoiding the scrutiny that comes along with a traditional IPO.

EureKING will list on Euronext Paris with up to 15 million shares at €10 each and has already identified 40 target contract development and manufacturing organisations (CDMOs) that make cell and gene therapies, biologics, or biotherapeutics (biological products containing live organisms such as bacteria to prevent, treat or cure cancer).

According to eureKING, just over 25% of the market is covered by the top CDMO players such as Lonza, Catalent, Samsung Biologics and WuXi Biologics, with the remaining 75% being shared by over a thousand companies.

"The creation of a new European biopharma CDMO champion will target a booming yet highly fragmented industry. Led by a seasoned management team, eureKING will act on well-identified targets allowing a timely and successful execution of the investment strategy," the company said in a statement.

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EureKING CEO Michael Kloss, formerly of Bayer's diabetes arm, said his company had plans to acquire around three CDMOs making about €50 million in annual revenues over the coming years.

The ultimate aim is to scale up manufacturing to meet the rapidly burgeoning demand for advanced therapeutics on the European market, which eureKING describes as a "critical sector ripe for consolidation".

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