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Sofinnova Partners announces an agreement to sell Fovea Pharmaceuticals to Sanofi Aventis

01/10/2009

Sofinnova's second major exit in 2009 after the record sale of CoreValve to Medtronic

Paris, France – October 1, 2009 – Sofinnova Partners, a Paris-based venture capital firm, today announced that Sanofi-aventis has signed a binding agreement for the acquisition of portfolio company Fovea Pharmaceuticals S.A. (“Fovea”), a privately held French research and development biopharmaceutical company focused on ocular diseases.

Under the terms of the agreement, Sanofi-aventis has agreed to purchase Fovea for a total enterprise value of up to 370 million euros, including an immediate upfront payment and subsequent milestone payments related to the three clinical compounds. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2009 subject to antitrust clearance under the Hart-Scott Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act. It represents one of the largest trade sales of a private biotech company in Europe, and one of the largest ever achieved in France.

Fovea was formed in 2005 and built upon close relationship with the Vision Institute, created and chaired by Professor Jose A. Sahel, at the National Eye Hospital in Paris.
Sofinnova Partners was the sole seed investor in the company at the time of its formation and remains the largest shareholder today. “Sofinnova acted as a genuine early stage VC, participating to the very creation of Fovea, when the company was still on the drawing board, and helped the company every step along the way”, said Bernard Gilly, Chairman and CEO of Fovea, who was a partner at Sofinnova Partners at the time of the company foundation. Fovea illustrates the firm’s hands-on and long term approach. “We start companies from the ground up, on the basis of world class science and around management teams we trust”, indicated Antoine Papiernik, Managing Partner at Sofinnova, and member of the board of Fovea.

The transaction comes a few months after another Sofinnova portfolio company, CoreValve, was sold to Medtronic for an initial payment of 700M$ plus additional payments based on the achievement of milestones. Similarly to Fovea, Sofinnova Partners was the first and largest institutional investor in CoreValve, and provided its expertise to management from the early stages of development to the trade sale. “Despite the difficult economic environment, 2009 is proving to be a historical year for Sofinnova Partners on the exit front, with transactions totalling more than 1.2b$ so far. This does reinforce our conviction that early stage venture capital investing in Europe is a very good place for us to be” added Antoine Papiernik.

Earlier this fall, Sofinnova Partners was recognized by its peers as one of the leaders in the industry, winning the “Life Science Deal of the Year” and “Private Equity Firm of the Year” Awards from New York based organisation M&A Advisor. In March 2009, it received the “European Venture Capital Firm of the year 2008” Award by Private Equity International.

About Sofinnova Partners
Sofinnova Partners is an independent venture capital firm based in Paris, France that specializes in investments in early stage companies and corporate spin-offs in the technology and life sciences sectors. From landmark historical investments including Genentech and Biogen to more recent successes such as Vistaprint, Actelion and CoreValve, Sofinnova has a history of discovering and nurturing companies and entrepreneurs. Since 1972, the firm has financed over 460 companies, many of which have gone public or have been acquired, and currently manages over €1 billion in assets.

About Fovea Pharmaceuticals
Fovea Pharmaceuticals SA (Fovea) is a privately-held biopharmaceutical company specialized in development and commercialization of drugs for the treatment of ocular diseases, with a special focus on retinal pathologies. Founded in May 2005, Fovea has raised two rounds of financing from a strong international syndicate of investors (Sofinnova Partners, Abingworth Management, Forbion Capital Partners, The Wellcome Trust, CA Private Equity, GIMV, Vesalius BioCapital). Fovea has built a project portfolio including internal research programs on dry AMD, glaucoma (neuroprotection) and retinal dystrophies as well as development programs underway for such indications as allergic conjunctivitis, diabetic macular edema, retinal vein occlusion, and retinitis pigmentosa.