Case study:
Assessment of Development Milestones to Support Further Investment Decisions
Background:
The Client: A large multi-national fund, with part-ownership of a small biotech with a novel platform technology
The Target: An EU-based biotech company developing a novel technology platform to facilitate the rapid development of room- temperature stable therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines
The Project: To undertake a rapid assessment to determine whether contractual development milestones had been achieved, to trigger further investment in the target company
Boyds approach
The scope of work was agreed with the Client and the deadline for submission of the Boyds due diligence report was set at two weeks from project initiation, defined as the point at which the Boyds team was granted access to the data room.
The Client provided Boyds with access to a secure data room containing target company presentations and supporting scientific data. The Boyds team rapidly assimilated the information presented and evaluated the underlying scientific data to determine whether it substantiated the program summaries provided by the target company. While many of the claims were supported by scientific evidence, the Boyds team identified several gaps in the available information.
Requests for additional information were submitted to both the Client and the target company, enabling the Boyds team to confidently assess whether the relevant development milestones had been achieved. The target company responded satisfactorily to all queries, allowing Boyds to conclude that the contractual milestones had been met and that further investment was justified.
Impact and Outcomes
Based on the Boyds team’s assessment that the agreed development milestones had been achieved, the Client proceeded with a further investment in the target company, providing continued support for the advancement of the technology platform and its development programs.