- Amgen acquires all shares in Catherex
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Agreement consists of an upfront payment of USD 10.5 m, milestone payments and royalties for Amgen's US- and EU-approved drug Imlygic® (T-Vec)
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Medigene will receive approx. 40% of payments to be made by Amgen
Martinsried/Munich, 21 December 2015. Medigene AG (MDG1, Frankfurt, Prime Standard), a clinical stage immunotherapy company focussing on the development of T-cell therapy platforms for the treatment of cancer, announced that Amgen Inc., USA, will acquire 100% of Catherex, Inc., USA, a spin-off of Medigene. As a main shareholder of Catherex, Medigene Inc., USA, is entitled to approximately 40% of payments to be made by Amgen. The Company was informed today about the execution of the corresponding purchase agreement by Catherex, Amgen and the shareholders of Catherex. Medigene Inc., USA, is a 100% subsidiary of Medigene AG.
The former shareholders of Catherex will receive an upfront payment of USD 10.5 million from Amgen and will be entitled to milestone payments upon achievement of certain regulatory and sales-based milestones for Amgen's drug Imlygic®(formerly T-Vec). In addition, royalty payments on the sale of Imlygic® will be made until the end of 2020. Amgen's drug Imlygic® was approved for the treatment of advanced, metastatic melanoma in the USA in October 2015 and recently in the European Union.
Closing of the transaction is envisaged to take place early 2016. Therefore, there is no impact on Medigene's financial guidance for 2015.
Dr. Frank Mathias, CEO of Medigene AG and President of Medigene Inc., comments: "This sale of an equity stake to Amgen enables Medigene to commercialise further assets derived from our portfolio. In addition to our recent announcement regarding the transfer of EndoTAG®, this step supports Medigene's focus on immunotherapy as our core business."
Peter Llewellyn-Davies, CFO of Medigene AG and COO/Managing Director of Medigene Inc., adds: "With this transaction we have achieved our goal to profitably realize the previous investments made in Catherex. The upfront and milestone payments and the expected cash inflow of regular royalty payments from Amgen is part of our strategy to tap additional financial resources for the ongoing clinical development programmes of our innovative immunotherapies."
About Catherex: In April 2010, Medigene assigned its development program of oncolytic (cancer-killing) herpes simplex viruses (oHSV), to Catherex, Inc., a private US company located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In return, Medigene received a 40% stake in Catherex, making Medigene the main shareholder of this newly founded company. In 2014, Catherex spun off ongoing research and development projects and certain patent rights into the newly formed Aettis Inc. of which Medigene holds a 39% stake. Since then, Catherex only owns a specific patent portfolio in the field of oncolytic viruses, which has now been acquired by Amgen.
Medigene AG is a publicly listed (Frankfurt: MDG1, prime standard) biotechnology company headquartered in Martinsried near Munich, Germany. The company is developing highly innovative, complementary treatment platforms to target various types and stages of cancer with candidates in clinical and pre-clinical development. Medigene concentrates on the development of personalized T cell-based immunotherapies.
For more information, please visit www.medigene.com
This press release contains forward-looking statements representing the opinion of Medigene as of the date of this release. The actual results achieved by Medigene may differ significantly from the forward-looking statements made herein. Medigene is not bound to update any of these forward-looking statements. Medigene® and EndoTAG® are registered trademarks of Medigene AG. These trademarks may be owned or licensed in select locations only.
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