Oxford Nanopore Technologies PLC (LSE:ONT), the London-listed tech group, rallied close to 12% after it was revealed drug giant Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) had bought a £50 million stake.
It comes as part of an equity issue and is the beginning of a larger investment from the Danish pharma firm, with Novo planning to increase its stake through purchases in the secondary market.
Oxford Nanopore, based in Oxford and specialising in molecular sensing technology, has developed a new generation of analysis technology for DNA and RNA sequencing.
This technology provides data on epigenetics and other insights through real-time workflows and portable formats.
It is currently utilised in over 120 countries to understand various biological entities and diseases, including cancer.
“Oxford Nanopore has made impressive ongoing progress to advance its technology platform and gain commercial traction,” said Daniel Mahony at Novo Growth Investments.
“This investment underscores our belief in Oxford Nanopore’s platform and its expanding opportunity in biopharmaceuticals, where rapid sequencing, richer data and a streamlined platform can support discovery and delivery of new drug therapies.
“We are confident in Oxford Nanopore’s long-term value proposition after extensive due diligence within the biopharma community and analysis of their robust and extensive IP portfolio.”