A fourth round for Synt:em

Investee Company – Synt:em (France)

Investee Company Business Type – Develops novel drugs targeting central nervous system diseases

Type of Financing – Development

Equity Providers – Lombard Odier & Cie, BankInvest, Rendex, Private Equity Holding managed by Vontobel Group, Medicis, Mercure Biotech, Apax Partners & Cie, Banexi Ventures, HealthCap

Equity Leader (Individual) – Martin Bitch, Bank Invest

Debt Providers – N/A

Debt Type – N/A

Debt Leader (Individual) – N/AEquity Amount – euro22 million

Total Deal Value – euro22 million

Other Advisors – N/A

Comments – Lombard Odier & Cie and BankInvest co-lead a euro22 million investment in Synt:em, developer of novel drugs candidates targeting central nervous system diseases. Other subscribers to this round included previous investors Apax Partners & Cie, Banexi Ventures and HealthCap, with new participants Rendex, Private Equity Holding managed by Vontobel Group, Medicis and Mercure Biotech. This investment is the first in French healthcare for BankInvest and the inital investment in a private company by Chevrillon Philippe’s Mercure Biotech fund.

Synt:em develops proprietary technologies for discovery of novel therapeutics in neurological diseases. The technologies are derived from the company’s complementary platforms, Acti:map (a computational active compound development and optimisation engine) and Pep:trans (a breakthrough engineering system that improves drug uptake and efficacy in the brain). Synt:em has initiated an internal portfolio of research programmes for CNS diseases, with the first product developed through these technologies to enter clinical trials in 2002.

Michel Kaczorek, president and CEO of Synt:em, said: “I am extremely pleased that such a high quality group of investors has decided to back Synt:em’s shift towards becoming a product driven company while continuing to serve the pharmaceutical industry’s needs. It is our intention to use the money that we have raised today to fund the development of our own drug candidates through their preclinical and early stage clinical development; a strategy that we expect will enable us to generate significant value for all of the company’s shareholders.”

This round of financing follows an initial investment in the company of $350,000 during May 1997. Apax Partners and Banexi Ventures joined Synt:em in December 1997 with $3.4 million investment and reinforced their support in September 1999 along with new investors 3i and HealthCap through a further FRF37 million capital increase.

Gordon Waldron, Synt:em’s VP Finance and CFO, said: “The international make up of Synt:em’s new investors reflects the increasing recognition around Europe of our exciting and ambitious corporate goals.”