AZ Joins Spin-Out Set, Forms GI Play Albireo

In mid February, AstraZeneca PLC completed its first ever biotech spin-out, backed by $27 million from Nomura Phase4 Ventures, TVM Capital, and Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, in the first close of a round that could reach $40 million. [See Deal] The formation of Albireo AB, a Gothenburg-based gastrointestinal play with a clinical-stage chronic constipation candidate and a small handful of undisclosed preclinical compounds, charts new territory for the Big Pharma and suggests a practical outlook when it comes to assets that have been sidelined as part of a strategic review—even if the company is in no hurry to repeat the process immediately.

Albireo begins life focused on ALBI 3309, an orally available novel-mechanism molecule first tested in chronic constipation; AstraZeneca had previously...