Date: 2015-05-07
Type of information: Company acquisition
Acquired company: Lanthio Pharma (The Netherlands)
Acquiring company: MorphoSys (Germany)
Amount: € 20 million
Terms: * On May 7, 2015, MorphoSys announced that it has acquired all outstanding shares of the Dutch biopharmaceutical company Lanthio Pharma. Prior to the acquisition, MorphoSys held 19.98% of Lanthio Pharma. MorphoSys will pay € 20 million to acquire the outstanding share capital of Lanthio Pharma from the other investors, among them INKEF Capital, BioGeneration Ventures and Hanzepoort. As part of its Innovation Capital initiative, MorphoSys had made its initial equity investment in November 2012 as part of Lanthio Pharma\'s Series A financing round.
Details: Lanthipeptides comprise a novel class of therapeutics with high target selectivity and improved drug-like properties. Lanthio Pharma\'s approach can be used to identify peptides which are selective for a specific disease target and to stabilize their structural conformation for optimal receptor binding. The high specificity that can be achieved opens up new therapeutic applications, potentially providing drugs for indications not usually targeted with antibodies. In addition to intravenous administration, therapeutic plasma levels of lanthipeptides can potentially be achieved via oral, pulmonary or subcutaneous delivery. The transaction brings Lanthio Pharma\'s lead compound LP2, a novel lanthipeptide in development for diabetic nephropathy and fibrotic diseases to MorphoSys\'s growing proprietary portfolio. LP2, which will be re-named MOR107, has demonstrated potent angiotensin II type 2 (AT2) receptor-dependent activity in vivo, and is planned to enter clinical trials in 2016. LP2 is the most advanced of four lanthipeptides in Lanthio Pharma\'s portfolio. Pancyte is a lanthipeptide derived from angiotensin with agonistic effect on the Mas receptor in the renin angiotensin system. It is being investigated as a therapeutic drug for ischemic stroke recovery, peripheral vascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Lathio Pharma is also working on lanthipeptide stabilized versions of apelin and galanin based lanthipeptides. Apelin is an endogenous peptide ligand for the G-protein-coupled APJ receptor. This receptor is expressed in various organs such as the heart, vasculature, kidney, adipose tissue, endothelium, and human plasma. Galanin is expressed by many neurons in the nervous system and is upregulated in microglia in multiple sclerosis lesions. Galanin based lanthipeptides show great promise as a potential novel treatment approach for multiple sclerosis.
Related: Cardiovascular diseases - Cerebrovascular diseases - Metabolic diseases - Neurodegenerative diseases
