Date: 2016-10-28
Type of information: Company acquisition
Acquired company: Ganymed Pharmaceuticals (Germany)
Acquiring company: Astellas Pharma (Japan)
Amount: up to € 1.28 billion
Terms: * On October 28, 2016, Astellas Pharma and Ganymed Pharmaceuticals announced that Astellas and Ganymed’s shareholders have entered into an agreement for Astellas to acquire Ganymed. Under the agreement, Astellas will pay € 422 million to acquire 100% of the equity in Ganymed. In addition, Ganymed’s shareholders will become eligible to receive up to € 860 million in further contingent payments based on progress in the development of IMAB362, Ganymed’s most advanced clinical program. Upon completion of the transaction, Ganymed would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Astellas. The closing of the transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals, and is expected to be finalized in the next several weeks.
Details: Ganymed Pharmaceuticals AG is a biopharmaceutical company developing Ideal Monoclonal Antibodies (IMABs). This new class of immunotherapeutic cancer drugs is highly selective for proteins which are present on tumor cells, but do not bind to healthy cells. The company was founded in 2001. Its shareholders include ATS Beteiligungsverwaltung GmbH, MIG Fonds, Future Capital AG, FCP Gany GmbH, and private individuals.
Ganymed has several oncology pipeline assets in pre-clinical and clinical stages including IMAB362. Recent results of a Phase 2b study (FAST) of IMAB362 in gastroesophageal cancer patients positive for Claudin18.2 showed that IMAB362 extended the median progression-free survival (7.9 months vs. 4.8 months, HR 0.47, p=0.0001) and the median overall survival (13.2 months vs. 8.4 months, HR 0.51, p=0.0001) when added to standard chemotherapy. In the subgroup of patients with the highest levels of Claudin18.2, IMAB362 resulted in near-doubling of overall survival (16.7 months vs. 9.0 months, HR 0.45, p<0.0005).
The acquisition of Ganymed will enable Astellas to further expand its oncology presence by adding a late-stage antibody asset with the potential to establish a new pillar following Xtandi® (Astellas Pharma and Medivation co-market Xtandi as part of a 2009 development and commercialization global agreement).
Related: Cancer - Oncology
