Celgene to acquire Gloucester Pharmaceuticals for $640 million

Biotechnology company Celgene Corporation said yesterday that it was in a deal to acquire privately-held Gloucester Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $640 million to bolster its portfolio of approved blood cancer drugs.

Under the terms of the deal, Celgene will acquire Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Gloucester Pharmaceuticals for $340 million in cash plus $300 million in future US and international regulatory milestone payments.

Celgene, based in Summit, New Jersey said that the acquisition of Gloucester will be accounted for as a purchase transaction that it expects to be completed in the first quarter of 2010 and to be neutral to non-GAAP diluted earnings for 2010 and accretive in 2011.

Founded in 2003, Gloucester is a privately-held biopharmaceutical company that acquires clinical-stage oncology drug candidates to commercialisation.

Its first drug, Istodax (romidepsin), a novel histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, was approved in November 2009, by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) in patients who have received at least one prior systemic therapy.

The company is also conducting a registration trial in peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) with an anticipated supplemental NDA filing in 2010 for this indication. Additional studies in both hematologic and solid tumors are currently ongoing.