Sector News

Categories

Borderless Insights

Image
Negotiating Terms with a New Employer
Image
Beyond Flowers and Platitudes: Reclaiming the Essence of International Women’s Day
Image
Visionary or ‘Stuck-in-the-Mud’? Where are you on Workplace Flexibility?

Resverlogix gets a $116M China drug development deal, stokes buyout buzz

April 29, 2015
Life sciences
Resverlogix has struck a deal to trade development rights in China for its lead cardio drug in exchange for a $41.5 million equity stake in the biotech along with up to $75 million in sales milestones. And today the Canadian biotech’s CEO added a sweetener, telling Bloomberg that he’s in talks with unnamed suitors to sell the company.
 
In what is becoming an increasingly familiar framework for a biotech deal, Shenzhen Hepalink Pharmaceutical acquired rights to develop RVX-208 for China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau. Hepalink, which is based in the Shenzhen High-Tech Park, is paying $29 million for 12.7% of the company while Eastern Capital is adding $12.5 million, boosting its stake in Resverlogix to 24%. Resverlogix’s statement concludes that if you add in a potential royalty stream, the company stands to earn more than $332 million in future revenue off the deal, if everything works as planned.  
 
The company’s shares surged a modest 6% today as news of the claimed sales talks spread.
 
“We are in discussions with multiple companies, not just one,” CEO Donald McCaffrey told Bloomberg, tossing his hat into a crowded ring of M&A speculation. Buyout deals have become all the rage in the industry, and a steady stream of prospective M&A deals and rumors has kept analysts buzzing.
 
Resverlogix has almost all of its eggs in the RVX-208 basket, aiming at a new treatment for atherosclerosis. It’s a small molecule that inhibits BET bromodomains by boosting levels of the ApoA-I protein, which in turn make high-density lipoprotein particles that can flush plaque.
 
Last summer the small biotech touted evidence of a reduction in major cardiovascular events among diabetes patients in two studies. That news came a year after Resverlogix’s Phase IIb trial for the drug ended in failure, wiping out most of its share value and forcing the company to go into survival mode.
 
By John Carroll
 

comments closed

Related News

April 20, 2024

CureVac and MD Anderson Cancer Center partner to develop new cancer vaccines

Life sciences

CureVac and the University of Texas’s MD Anderson Cancer Center have announced a co-development and licensing agreement to develop novel messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based cancer vaccines. The strategic collaboration will focus on the development of differentiated cancer vaccine candidates in selected haematological and solid tumour indications with high unmet medical needs.

Read more
April 20, 2024

FUJIFILM plans $1.2 billion investment in major US manufacturing facility

Life sciences

FUJIFILM Corporation is planning to invest $1.2 billion to expand the planned FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, US. This news follows the organisation’s announcement of a $2 billion investment in the facility in March 2021. This additional financial boost totals the investment to over $3.2 billion, FUJIFILM confirmed.

Read more
April 20, 2024

Sanofi cuts staff in Belgium as early-stage research dwindles

Life sciences

Sanofi’s global restructuring and downsizing is now fully underway, with layoffs stretching to the company’s Belgian offices. Belgian newspaper De Tijd reports that 67 employees have been laid off at a site in Ghent and 32 jobs are on the chopping block at Sanofi’s Belgium HQ in Diegem.

Read more
More news

How can we help you?

We're easy to reach