iPSC industry-leaders combine tools, talent, and technologies to drive life science discovery forward

Axol Bioscience and Censo Biotechnologies Announce Merger

• iPSC industry-leaders combine tools, talent, and technologies to drive life science discovery forward
• Merger accompanied by £3.8million ($5.3m USD) investment across shareholders, which will be used to fund recruitment and growth of the business

Cambridge, UK 17 March 2021: Axol Bioscience Ltd, an established provider of iPSC-derived cells, media, and characterization services, and CENSO Biotechnologies, a cell biology CRO with focused expertise in iPSC-related technologies, today announced that the two companies have signed a merger agreement. The new entity will become a leading provider of product and service solutions in the iPSC-based neuroscience, immune cell, and cardiac modeling for drug discovery and screening markets. It will offer customers validated ready-to-use cell lines and a suite of services with broader expertise, robust functional data, and customization capabilities, all with shorter lead times.

Axol Bioscience’s investors include Dr Jonathan Milner and award-winning EIS fund manager, Calculus Capital. CENSO Biotechnologies’ major investor is leading Edinburgh-based EIS fund manager, Par Equity. The transaction, effective today, is accompanied by a fundraising round in excess £3.8m, led by Calculus Capital and Par Equity. The investment will be used to enable growth of the business and acquisition of talent to meet customer demand.

Under the terms of the agreement, Axol Bioscience CEO, Liam Taylor, and the Axol senior leadership team will take over the management of the combined entity, with the intent to migrate the brand to Axol Bioscience. The agreement sees CENSO’s interim CEO, Dr Tom Stratford, appointed non-executive director of the combined board, on behalf of Par Equity.

Liam Taylor, CEO Axol, said: “Axol has experienced a rapid increase in demand for their iPSC-based products and services over the last three years. Merging with CENSO immediately and significantly grows our scientific team and breadth of expertise. That, and the addition of two sites for iPSC-derived cell line manufacturing and custom service work, will increase our production capacity and future-proof our organization to ensure demand can continue to be met with the short lead times and quality that our customers depend on.”

Dr Tom Stratford, CENSO interim CEO and non-executive director of the combined board, on behalf of Par Equity said: “CENSO’s strength is our scientific team, as trusted partners in designing, executing, and managing custom project work. The combined entity will now be able to leverage Axol’s strength in iPSC-derived cells as well as complementary services such as electrophysiology to further our ability and efficiency to serve customers. We bring to bear capabilities, bandwidth, and expertise to scale the manufacturing of those tools in a way that benefits both customer bases and the wider market.”

Dr Jonathan Milner, founder, and former CEO of Abcam and chairman of the Axol Bioscience board, said: “Consolidating these two players in the iPSC space that have complementary expertise and offerings is the most direct and low risk path to gaining a more competitive market position and moving both organizations from thriving start-ups to a more polished commercial entity that is able to meet aggressive demand increases.”

About Axol Bioscience

Axol Bioscience Ltd has been an industry leader for nearly a decade in the supply of human iPSC-derived cells from healthy and disease-state donors. Those products are supported and enhanced by optimized cell culture systems and media formulations that ensure quality, consistent cell behaviors, and expedited maturation. In addition, Axol is an experienced provider of custom services for disease modeling and toxicity screening to support drug discovery.

To best serve a growing drug discovery customer base, Axol continues to add in-demand assay capabilities to better characterize product cell lines and provide custom services. Most recently, Axol added electrophysiology capability and expertise with an in-house multi-electrode array system and a dedicated scientific thought leader in the area to guide customers and collaborators through relevant data sets for the best disease or functional cell models for their applications.

Follow Axol Bioscience on Twitter @axolbio and LinkedIn @Axol Bioscience Ltd

About Jonathan Milner

Jonathan, co-Founder of Abcam plc, is an entrepreneur and investor and is passionate about supporting UK life science and high-tech start-ups. He has provided investment and support to over 50 companies and has assisted three technology companies to IPO on the London AIM Stock exchange.

Jonathan gained his doctorate in Molecular Genetics at Leicester University after graduating in Applied Biology at Bath. From 1992–95, he was a post-doctoral researcher at Bath, following which he worked at the University of Cambridge in the lab of Professor Tony Kouzarides researching the molecular basis of breast cancer. He identified the market opportunity for supplying high-quality antibodies to support protein interaction studies, and in 1998, founded Abcam with Dr David Cleevely and Professor Tony Kouzarides.

Jonathan is also a non-executive director, investor and advisor to Start Codon, HealX, Shift Bioscience, and Syndicate Room. He is also Chairman of Axol Bioscience, CamAllergy, and PhoreMost.

In 2015 Jonathan, with Professor Tony Kouzarides, co-founded the Milner Therapeutics Institute at the University of Cambridge. Also in 2015 he co-founded, with Professor Laurence Hurst, the Milner Institute for Evolution at the University of Bath.