Bavarian Biotech Report 2011/2012 (7MB) - Bio M

Deals, Cooperation, Mergers, FinancingDeals and CooperationIn 2011, the Bavarian Biotech companies have been very active in closing many cooperation deals. Despite the difficulteconomic situation, all Bavarian biotech companies have been doing their homework in finding new partnerships orextending long-term cooperation deals. In the beginning of 2011, Pieris (Weihenstephan) signed an Anticalin® Therapeuticcollaboration with Takeda San Francisco, where Pieris will use its innovative technology platform based on Anticalin scaffoldsto identify new potential candidates for Takeda. A few months later, Pieris announced the signing of a drug developmentcollaboration with Daiichi Sankyo Company Limited. Under this agreement Pieris has received € 7 million uponsigning the collaboration agreement for two targets and will obtain research funding and payments for the achievement ofresearch, preclinical, regulatory and commercial milestones. Altogether, this partnership will be valued with more than€ 100 million per target for Pieris.Another mature biotech company, Micromet agreed on acollaboration with Amgen in July 2011 to develop cancerantibodies that could be worth € 695 million. The collaborationfocused of bispecific T-cell engager (BiTE) antibodiesagainst three solid tumor targets. Amgen decidedonly a few months later, that this technology and pipelineshould be integrated in toto – and bought Micromet inspring 2012 for nearly 1,2 billion US $ (see page 10)!End of July 2011, MorphoSys’ diagnostics unit AbDSerotec started a research and supply cooperation withthe Department of Cancer Immunology and AIDS at theDana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) in Boston. The companyprovides research tools using its proprietary Slonomicstechnology platform; in return AbD Serotecreceives financial compensation and preferred access tocommercialization rights for products generated duringthe collaboration.Altogether, more than ten service collaborations havebeen signed within the Bavarian Biotech Cluster, ofwhich Proteros Biostructures GmbH (Martinsried) hasclosed five service collaborations. In May 2011, e.g.,they signed a collaboration agreement with the InstitutPasteur Korea in the field of infectious diseases byproviding their expertise in structural analysis andX-ray crystallography. In July 2011 they increased theirservice collaborations with AMRI as well as with RigelPharmaceuticals.In January 2011, KINAXO Biotechnologies (Martinsried)started its collaboration with AstraZeneca to supportthe oncology program of AstraZeneca by applyingKINAXO’s technology platform. A couple of months later,KINAXO signed its second collaboration with TakedaPharmaceutical Company Limited Osaka. With thesupport of KINAXO’s PhosphoScout® technology platformTakeda could accelerate its decision making process ondrug efficacy and safety. It was only a few weeks laterthat Evotec AG, Hamburg, bought and integrated Kinaxofor about € 15 Mio.In addition to service collaborations, the Bavarian Biotechcompanies have closed several international marketing,sales and distribution agreements. Particularly MediGene(Martinsried) signed seven new commercialization agreementsfor the commercialization of Veregen ® with internationalpharmaceutical companies. An exclusive licensingand supply agreement with the Canadian companyTriton Pharma Inc. for the supply and commercializationof Veregen ® for the treatment of genital warts in Canadawas closed in April 2011. Triton will be responsible for thedrug approval procedure in Canada. MediGene is entitledto payments totaling up to € 2.1 million upon theachievement of milestones, and will obtain royalties onthe sales revenue generated with Veregen ® in the form ofa double-digit percentage share.Furthermore, Wilex Inc., the 100 percent subsidiary ofWilex AG (München) signed an exclusive co-marketingand distribution agreement with American LaboratoryProducts Company Inc. (Salem, USA) as regards thecommercialization of the Serum HER-2/neu ELISA test,the only FDA-cleared IVD ELISA in North America formonitoring women with metastatic breast cancer.Definiens and Leica Microsystems havestarted their marketing Joint Venture inApril 2011. Both companies will jointlymarket their complementary productsand will be providing commonworkshops and educationalevents.22