Amicus Therapeutics Buys Gene Therapy Company
Amicus Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FOLD) is focused on rare and orphan diseases. So it’s no head-scratcher that the Cranbury, New Jersey-based biotech agreed to shell out $100 million to acquire Celenex. a clinical-stage gene therapy company in Columbus, Ohio. Celenex’ lead programs in CLN6, CLN3 and CLN8 Batten disease are potential first-to-market curative therapies for these rare, devestating diseases. Batten disease, also known as Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis (NCL), is a family of rare disorders that can be life-threatening and debilitating, with high unmet need. With this acquisition, Amicus gains the worldwide development and commercial rights for 10 gene therapy programs... Read More »
Seeking Cash and More Cash
After finishing up its strategic alternatives review, OvaScience, which is focused on developing treatments for infertility, decided the best way to go for shareholders was to merge into Millendo Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel treatments for orphan endocrine diseases. OvaScience’s market cap was just $26 million, and it really hadn’t had any revenues yet. What it did have was cash, a total of $53.6 million of it (combined with short-term investments) as of June 30, 2018. Management at OvaScience must have thought that Millendo would have better use of that cash than for its own research. In merging with OvaScience, not only does... Read More »
Biogen’s $1 Billion Collaboration
The biggest biotechnology deal announced in July came from Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB), which specializes in treatments for neurological, autoimmune and hematologic disorders. The company inked an exclusive, 10-year collaboration agreement with Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: IONS) to develop novel antisense drug candidates for a broad range of neurological diseases. The price is a combination of $375 million upfront and $625 million to acquire approximately 11.5 million shares of Ionis’ common stock. Biogen may eventually pay development milestones of up to $125 million, or $270 million for each program, depending on the indication, and royalties on net sales. Biogen will have the... Read More »
Otsuka Scores Twice in One Week
Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Otsuka Holdings (OTC: OTSKY), announced back-to-back deals in early July, in which it entered a new field, and bolstered one of its existing segments. Otsuka’s research areas are in psychiatric and neurological diseases, hematological cancers, and kidney, cardiovascular, and infectious diseases. On July 11, the company announced its acquisition of ReCor Medical, a portfolio company of Sofinnova Partners, for an undisclosed price. The Palo Alto, California-based medical device company specializes in the treatment of hypertension, a new area for Otsuka. ReCor was founded in 2009 by Sofinnova Partners and Professor Jacques Seguin, MD, who... Read More »
Roche Builds on its Foundation Medicine Deal
Three years after its first investment, Roche AG (SIX: RO) bought the rest of Foundation Medicine, Inc., a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based molecular information company. In January 2015, Roche plunked down $1.03 billion to acquire approximately 57% of Foundation Medicine from its venture capital backers Google Ventures, Third Rock Ventures and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. Roche acquired approximately 15.6 million shares in Foundation at $50 per share. It also invested $250 million by acquiring 5 million newly issued shares at $50 per share. My, how times (and markets) have changed. On June 19, Roche announced it would pay $2.4 billion to buy the shares it didn’t own. The... Read More »Schedule a demo
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