Nanotether Discovery Science, a Cardiff-based pharmaceutical research technology business, has been acquired for £265,000 by medical device company Belluscura (Insider Media, 2017).

Nanotether owns intellectual property designed to accelerate the rate at which biomolecular interactions can be studied via biological assays, intended for use in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology markets, especially where high throughput drug discovery programmes are in use.

Belluscura, a global medical device company based in Oxford and owned by AIM-listed Tekcapital, has acquired all the intellectual property, cash reserves and tangible assets of Nanotether through the acquisition. No employees or consultants will remain with the business after the deal is completed.

As a result of the issue of new shares in Belluscura in connection with the acquisition, Tekcapital’s ownership interest in Belluscura has been reduced from 65% to approximately 61% of its share capital.

Bob Rauker, chief executive of Belluscura, said “We are delighted to complete this acquisition which will further enhance Belluscura’s assets.”

Nanotether Discovery Science was founded in 2012 under an agreement between university commercialisation company Fusion IP and Cardiff University. It previously raised up to £2.2m in a 2012 funding round led by Andrew Black, the founder of Betfair.