After scuttling development of a blood-loss therapy in October, The Medicines Co. ($MDCO) notched two deals and laid down about $300 million to bolster its offerings for the hospital market. The larger of the two deals was the buyout of Incline Therapeutics for $185 million up front to gain the developer's Ionsys system for dispensing the painkiller fentanyl.
In the second deal, The Medicines Co. grabbed a two-year license to commercial rights for Bristol-Myers Squibb's ($BMY) bleeding-control device. The deal calls for a $105 million payment up front for the right to sell Bristol's device, dubbed Recothrom. As Reuters reports, the deal includes a $10 million option fee and Bristol will be the sole provider of the device and stands to gain royalties on sales.
Before The Medicines Co. swooped in, venture-backed Incline Therapeutics appeared destined to be acquired by Cadence Pharmaceuticals, which gained an option to buy Incline in 2010 that recently expired. A group of venture backers--Frazier Healthcare, 5AM Ventures, Technology Partners, Adams Street Partners, Saints Capital Partners, and Emergent Medical Partners--have supported Incline through ups and downs with its antipain system, which the company opted not to launch in the U.S. after stability problems prompted the company to pull the device from the European market.
After making improvements to the device and testing it, plans call for resubmitting the Ionsys system for approvals and launching U.S. sales in 2014.
"With two simultaneous transactions, selected and engineered as major elements in an established acute and intensive care hospital strategy," The Medicines Co. CEO and Chairman Clive Meanwell stated, "we believe [the company] is in position to be the leading biopharmaceutical industry player in perioperative care."
- here's the Incline deal release
- check out the Reuters item