MerLion raises cash, acquires European subsidiaries

Singapore drug discovery firm MerLion Pharmaceuticals has raised from venture capitalists $25 million of the $30 million it intends to raise this year. The company has also acquired, through exchange of shares, two European drug discovery outfits, Germany's Combinature BioPharm and Switzerland's Athelas. Combinature's nuclear magnetic resonance and anti-infective research activities will continue out of Berlin, and Combinature's CEO, Harald Labischinski, will become MerLion's chief scientific officer. Athelas will provide MerLion with proprietary anti-infectives discovery platforms. MerLion owns what many say is the world's largest library of plants and natural organisms, which it acquired from GlaxoSmithKline and the Singapore Institute of Molecular & Cell Biology (C&EN, March 6, page 44).