A scientist from Hertfordshire is part of a team set to enjoy a multi-million pound payday after agreeing to sell the AI firm he founded to a division of analytics giant RELX.
FTSE 100 firm RELX’s science focused arm Elsevier said it has acquired Cambridge-headquartered SciBite, a company that provides software tools that allow those in the pharmaceutical sector to analyse their data.
No purchase price was given, but a near £65 million deal is understood to have been agreed.
SciBite was founded by Dr Lee Harland, who once worked at drugs behemoth Pfizer, in 2011 and it counts AstraZeneca, GSK and Novartis as customers. It has 60 staff.
Harland and chief executive Rob Greenwood are the majority owners of SciBite, which is also owned by the wider management team, employees and other stakeholders.
Harland said: "Our track record in driving new insights and efficiencies within drug discovery and the wider life sciences is something we will continue to build upon in this next phase of our journey."
The deal is aimed at supporting more customers in making data-led decisions in the drug development process.
