Circassia Pharmaceuticals intends to make an all cash offer to acquire Aerocrine, a Swedish listed company focused on the development and commercialisation of medical diagnostic products for use in the diagnosis and management of patients with asthma, for a total consideration of up to SKr1.78bn. Circassia also intends to acquire Prosonix, a privately-held speciality pharmaceutical company focused on the development of product candidates for the treatment of asthma and/or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), for an aggregate cash consideration of up to £100m. Circassia has separately announced today that it proposes to raise £275m, through a placing and open offer.
Chief executive Steve Harris said: "These proposed acquisitions and associated fundraising significantly accelerate Circassia's strategy to become a self-sustaining specialty biopharmaceutical company focused on allergy and asthma. The combined organisation will give us both the capability and resources to commercialise our enlarged late-stage pipeline of potential new allergy and asthma products, once approved, and thereby generate significant shareholder value.
"We believe Aerocrine's established commercial infrastructure, which is already targeting our core potential customers in key markets, will optimise the launch of Cat-SPIRE, which is the first of our next generation allergy immunotherapies, and which remains on track to report pivotal phase III results in H1 2016. Additionally, Prosonix's innovative technology gives us a portfolio of near-term products targeting asthma and other respiratory diseases, which complement our current pipeline and should enable us to further leverage Aerocrine's commercial infrastructure."