Wanda and Vortex to vacate stage

Commercialisation firm NetScientific is to wind down two of its US-based portfolio companies, Wanda and Vortex Biosciences, both spinouts of University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) focused on digital health and cancer diagnostics respectively.
The pair were identified as targets for efficiencies in a strategic review published by NetScientific on February 15 on account of them failing to secure external funding to service continued development.
However, NetScientific rejected a preliminary approach for the companies from an unidentified suitor, after concluding the offer price was insufficient to justify sustaining the businesses through due diligence and negotiations.
Wanda was founded in 2011 to commercialise a remote healthcare analytics and management platform for chronic diseases, while Vortex Biosciences was formed the following year to pursue diagnostics research into circulating cancer tumour cells.
NetScientific has been battling to reduce the $6.4m committed to its portfolio companies in each of 2019 and 2020 before the outlay becomes a serious drain on cash balances pegged at $4.2m at the end of 2018.
The closures should enable NetScientific to focus on portfolio companies that do not require further investment, maximising the chances of securing value for its shareholders. These include Glycotest, a liver disease diagnostics spinout of Baruch S. Blumberg Institute and Drexel University.
Queen’s University-founded chronic respiratory conditions diagnostics kit supplier ProAxsis will also receive NetScientific’s continued attention, together with cancer immunotherapy developer PDS Biotechnology, which closed a merger with acute complications therapy producer Edge Therapeutics yesterday.
NetScientific owned a 62% shareholding in Wanda as of August 2018 and a 66.1% share of Vortex Biosciences as of November 2018.