Sir Christopher Evans, the renowned British biotech entrepreneur, is close to landing $50m (£37m) in funding for a developer of a new portfolio of cancer treatments.
Sky News has learnt Sir Christopher, whose previous companies have included Biovex and Chiroscience, is in the advanced stages of securing the capital for Ellipses Pharma.
City sources said Middle Eastern and Asian investors had provisionally agreed to provide the bulk of the new funding, which is expected to be committed at a valuation of about $800m (£592m).
The capital injection is expected to be the last such fundraising before Sir Christopher seeks an initial public offering for Ellipses Pharma, with Hong Kong the likeliest listing venue.
Ellipses’ focus on oncology has previously drawn investment from prominent backers including Sir Tom Hunter’s investment vehicle, West Coast Capital.
The London-based company’s board members include an executive from Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund.
In December, it announced the launch of a clinical trial programme in the UAE.
Thames Water survival hopes suffer fresh blow
Thames crisis underlines scale of water industry turnaround task
Chinese group Jingye hires lawyers to recover British Steel cash
“This tremendous commitment has led us to the point where our achievements can be brought to bear for the potential benefit of patients in UAE,” Sir Christopher said at the time.
“In many ways, we can now bring hope and an innovative therapy to people in the UAE and also enable healthcare professionals to collaborate and share research.”
A spokesman for Ellipses declined to comment on the fundraising.
