Amgen, the world’s largest biotechnology company, agreed on Wednesday to buy Scandinavian biopharmaceutical company Nuevolution AB for 1.61 billion Swedish crowns ($166.8 million) to boost its position in drug discovery.
Copenhagen-headquartered Nuevolution said its board unanimously recommended Amgen’s cash offer of 32.5 Swedish crowns per share, a premium of 168.6% to Nuevolution’s closing price on Tuesday.
Nuevolution has a patent protected drug research platform to identify small-molecule drug candidates to be taken as pills against cancer and inflammatory diseases.
Most new drugs in these therapeutic areas are currently based on large proteins made from genetically modified living cells which need to be injected and are expensive to manufacture.
Nuevolution has partnered with pharma majors including Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline and Merck & Co, according to its website.
The company was founded in 2011 and employs 40 full-time professionals.
Amgen, which is grappling with competition to its new migraine treatment Aimovig and cholesterol fighter Repatha, said it had collaborated with Nuevolution since 2016 and that it had exercised opt-in rights for two cancer treatment approaches that have emerged from the alliance.
At 0850 GMT, Nuevolution shares were up 165% at 32.1 crowns
By Philip George, Ludwig Burger and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen
Source: Reuters
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The terms of the deal were undisclosed, but Atreca received $6 million from the Gates Foundation in 2012 to discover potential treatments for malaria, tuberculosis and HIV. The foundation has also given grant money to other biopharmas exploring malaria treatments, including Exscientia, which secured $4.2 million last year for such work.
At the start of the last decade, the IPO markets weren’t receptive to biotech companies. But by 2013, public investment was pouring into the industry, drawn by scientific advances and boosted by the newfound interest of a broader range of investors. Ever since, biotechs and their backers have ridden a multi-year boom. Keep track of them as they happen with this database.
