Lacerta Bio Joins Forces With Ventac Partners

NEW YORK - Nov. 17, 2014 - PRLog -- New York, New York and Copenhagen, Denmark, November 17, 2014 — Representatives from Lacerta Bio Incorporated and Ventac Partners A/S announced this week that the two companies will be merging, expanding the scale and scope of both organizations.

“We have followed Ventac Partners since 2009, and met several of the Ventac Partners over the past few years,” said Carlos N. Velez, Managing Partner of Lacerta Bio. “After several meetings, it became clear to us that a relationship with Ventac Partners was the path forward for us to rapidly expand the international scale and scope of our practice.”

“Ventac Partners was eager to quickly expand our presence in the US,” said Mikael Oerum, Founder and Partner of Ventac Partners.” “The work Carlos has performed over the past few years made Lacerta Bio an obvious choice for us. We believe we have a highly complementary set of skills, relationships, and working styles that will make this partnership a long-term success.”

The combined entity will focus on serving its pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients with a range of consulting and business development services, including in- and out-licensing services, market research and due diligence support, education and training, and fundraising.

The combined entity will also continue its successful process of starting and building new life science companies around interesting technologies. The current Ventac Partners portfolio has eleven companies focused on a range of diagnostic and therapeutic product candidates. The combined entity will look to expand this portfolio to twenty companies within the next twelve to twenty four months.

About Ventac Partners

Ventac Partners is a dedicated life science consulting firm with offices in Europe, USA and Asia. With prior careers as start-up entrepreneurs and CEOs, executives from large pharma, executives in IP, business and product development, pre-clinical and clinical experts, and board members, the Ventac Partners team offers strategic and operational experience in all facets of creating, running and growing biotech and medtech businesses. With our team come more than 200 years of international practical experience in growing good technology into successful businesses, both as entrepreneurs in start-up companies and as management in large pharma enterprises and CROs. Since the beginning of Ventac Partners in 2002, the team has:

> assessed more than 1000 invention disclosures and business plans from life science researchers and entrepreneurs
> raised more than EUR 250 million in funding for start-up and growth stage companies
> incorporated and grown more than 15 spin-out companies with inventors/universities/large companies as co-owners
> negotiated large technology and drug licenses in USA, Europe, Japan and China
> provided board level strategic input to companies and governments
> delivered turn-around teams to companies in distress or in need of a sharper commercial profile and/or successful business development impact in the market place

The Ventac Partners team has a long-standing record of achievement; both from previous positions and as part of Ventac Partners, and all members bring extensive networks to academia, industry, and investors. Further information about Ventac Partners can be found at http://www.ventac-partners.com.

About Lacerta Bio

Lacerta Bio is a New York-based business development and licensing consultancy. Founded in 2010, Lacerta Bio provides both business development and consulting services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies around the world. Lacerta Bio specializes in identifying, assessing, negotiating, and closing licensing and partnership opportunities for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and drug delivery industries. Lacerta Bio uses a blend of tools and techniques to market opportunities, collect competitive intelligence, conduct market research, and provide valuable information and advice to its clients. Since the beginning of Lacerta Bio in 2010, the company has:

> assisted two drug delivery companies in the out-licensing of their technologies
> assisted in the formation of one specialty pharmaceutical company and one contract research organization
> assisted in the out-licensing of assets in the anti-infectives, gastrointestinal, oncology, osteoporosis, biosimilars, and other therapeutic areas
> provided market research and due diligence support to private equity investors for the acquisition of legacy brands and for investments in specialty pharmaceutical companies

Lacerta Bio has delivered cost-effective business development services to its clients based on direct experience in both pharmaceutical and consulting firms. Further information may be found at http://www.lacertabio.com