Subsidiary established for Danish funds
The Copenhagen environment was twofold attractive to ACADIA Pharmaceuticals when it was decided to establish a subsidiary in 1997. Not only was the biotechnological environment – research and business– estimated to be of international class, but also the financial environment, which could offer a start capital was highly appraised. Since that time this capital has been followed by further investments, and the company is now soundly prepared for growth in Copenhagen.
"Before establishing our Copenhagen subsidiary, we had good contacts in the area because of our initial collaborations with drug companies and medical institutions. This gave us an inside perspective on the booming biotech industry in Copenhagen. There is a lot of enthusiasm in the area, and the concentration of world-class research institutions makes it easy to recruit good people," states Mark R. Brann, Ph.D., founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer - ACADIA Pharmaceuticals.
Private placements for USD 46m
"We were also encouraged by the excellent financing opportunities we found here", he continues. In its first round of financing, ACADIA generated an initial investment of USD 13.5m from Danish sources. In addition to a loan of USD 7m from the Danish Business Development Finance Agency, a consortium of private Danish institutional investors provided USD 6.5m in equity capital. Danish funds are thus behind the establishment of the subsidiary.
Since then, other Danish and European investors have appeared and in just three years the total private placement of funds has reached USD 46m.
"For these and other reasons, it wasn’t that big a leap for us to settle in Copenhagen. We’re now firmly established in two of the most active and prosperous medical/pharmaceutical communities in the world, and we’re very pleased with the wide number of opportunities this gives ACADIA," Mark R. Brann says.
ACADIA Pharmaceuticals
Founded in 1993, ACADIA Pharmaceuticals is an integrated drug discovery company involved in the identification of molecular mechanisms of disease. The company has developed a platform of proprietary technologies for rapid analysis of gene function. ACADIA uses its innovative technology platform to identify which targets are relevant to a disease and to discover compounds that specifically regulate these targets. The company has headquarters in San Diego, California, and operations in San Diego and in Copenhagen.
