From A to Z to CSL

Two decades after it was founded and one decade after it went public, Zenyth Therapeutics Ltd. is being acquired by fellow Australian company CSL Ltd. for A$102.7 million ($77.3 million) in cash. Zenyth, formerly Amrad Corp. Ltd., has had myriad technologies and compounds under its roof over the past 20 years, none of which were successful. In the end, the deal was driven by two preclinical antibodies against novel targets, which were discovered by one of the company's founding academic institutions.

Amrad was formed in 1986 by four Melbourne research institutes and the state government of Victoria. The goal was to commercialize science coming out of Australian academia. The company floated in December 1996, raising A$70 million ($55.3 million) in an IPO that valued it at about A$220 million ($173.8 million). ...