International law firm, Osborne Clarke has advised US-based client Takeda Ventures, Inc. (TVI), the corporate venture arm of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, on its investment into the €20 million (US$27.6 million) series B equity financing round of Austria-based Hookipa Biotech AG.

Existing investors Sofinnova Partners and Forbion Capital Partners led the financing with TVI, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, and BioMedPartners joining the syndicate as new investors.

Janita Good, Partner and Head of Life-Sciences and Healthcare in the UK led the Osborne Clarke team assisted by Associate Director Thomas Colmer, Corporate and Senior Associate Clare Greatbanks, IP and Commercial. The team were supported by Austrian counsel Christoph Brogyányi, Partner Dorder Brugger Jordis.

Janita comments: "This was a truly international transaction with investment coming from France, Netherlands, Germany, as well as the US into Austria.''

"We were able to capitalise on our expertise on EU in-bound investment, specifically related to the Life Science sector.''

"We have been working with TVI for many years and are pleased to see another European biotech company in their portfolio."

Dr Graeme Martin, President and CEO of Takeda Ventures Inc. comments: “This investment in Hookipa Biotech is the seventh European investment supported by Osborne Clarke that we have made since 2005. As a US-based operation also working across many jurisdictions in Europe, we absolutely need on-tap pan-European expertise to support our due diligence efforts from beginning to end. We couldn’t be more pleased with the assiduousness of the Osborne Clarke team, who once again pulled out the stops to support us with a less than straightforward investment against very tight timelines."

This is the 11th transaction on which the Osborne Clarke Life-Science Team have advised this year. Osborne Clarke officially opened its New York office earlier this week to offer on hand advice to East coast clients on EU in-bound commercial issues.

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