Boehringer Ingelheim to acquire Actimis Pharmaceuticals
18 June 2008
Pharmaceuticals group Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH yesterday disclosed its $515-million structured buyout deal to acquire privately owned respiratory disease start-up biopharmaceutical Actimis Pharmaceuticals, based in San Diego.
The acquisition marks the 120-year old Boehringer's maiden entry in to biotechnologies. Owned by the Boehringer and von Baumbach families, the pharmaceuticals firm is the latest pharmaceutical firm to acquire promising American biotechnology companies to improve its new drugs pipeline. For instance, this year Swiss drug maker Roche Holding AG is acquiring the UK-based biotech Piramed Ltd for $175 million, Pfizer is acquiring privately held biotechnology company Serenex Inc, Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. is taking over Millennium Pharmaceuticals Incfor $8.8 billion and GlaxoSmithKline plc is acquirng Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc for $720 million. (See: Pfizer to acquire Serenex, extend oncology pipeline / Japan's Takeda to acquire Millennium Pharma for $8.8 billion / GlaxoSmithKline acquires Sirtris Pharmaceuticals)
Further financial details were not disclosed Boehringer said it would acquire Actimis's shares depending on the achievement of several successive milestones with Actimis' leading asthma compound AP768. If AP768, currently in phase I clinical development, is successfully advanced into phase III, Boehringer Ingelheim will own 100 per cent of Actimis' shares. Upon successful completion of the entire development programme, the total deal will be worth $515 million.
Actimis focuses on the development of small molecule therapeutics for respiratory and inflammatory disorders. It was created as a spin-off from the respiratory diseases therapeutic research portfolio of Bayer Healthcare AG. The spin-off was founded by Dr. Kevin Bacon and has received venture financing from a syndicate lead by Sanderling Ventures of San Mateo, California and Mitsui & Co Venture Partners of New York. Dr. Bacon was most recently vice president and global head of respiratory diseases research at Bayer Yakuhin Ltd., Japan where the programmes were initiated.
The compound AP768 interacts with CRTH2, a novel target for asthma and allergic rhinitis. Previous to the currently ongoing phase I clinical trial, the compound has been shown to have a more effective mechanism of action across multiple available animal models compared to currently marketed leukotriene receptor antagonists. (CRTH2 = chemo-attractant receptor-homologous molecule expressed on TH2 mice cells.)
''Actimis's compound provides an innovative addition to Boehringer Ingelheim's portfolio of development candidates for the potential treatment of respiratory diseases'', said Dr. Andreas Barner, vice-chairman of the board corporate division pharma research, development and medicine at Boehringer Ingelheim. ''For many decades Boehringer Ingelheim has been advancing research and development in the respiratory area with new medicines, such as Spiriva, which has significantly improved the treatment of COPD patients.''
