Date: 2015-05-11
Type of information: Company acquisition
Acquired company: Stage Cell Therapeutics (Germany)
Acquiring company: Juno Therapeutics (USA - CA)
Amount: €52.5 Million in cash ($59 Million) and 486,279 Shares of Juno Stock
Terms: * On May 11, 2015, Juno Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company focused on re-engaging the body\'s immune system to revolutionize the treatment of cancer, announced that it has acquired Stage Cell Therapeutics GmbH, a privately held biotechnology company based in Munich and Göttingen, Germany.
Juno made an upfront payment of €52.5 million in cash (approximately $59 million) and 486,279 shares of Juno stock to acquire the 95% of Stage not already owned by Juno. Juno is also obligated to pay success based payments of up to €135 million based upon the achievement of development and commercialization milestones related to novel reagents (€40 million), advanced automation technology (€65 million), and Stage\'s existing clinical pipeline (€30 million).
Details: The transaction furthers Juno\'s strategy of being a world leader in process development and the manufacturing of cellular therapies. The acquisition provides Juno access to transformative cell selection and activation capabilities, next generation manufacturing automation technologies, enhanced control of its supply chain, and lower expected long-term cost of goods. Juno plans to operate the acquired company, which employs 23 scientists, engineers, and other personnel, as a wholly-owned German subsidiary under the name Juno Therapeutics GmbH.
Since its founding in 2005, Stage has been translating innovative and unique science and technology into cell therapeutics. The company´s next generation cell isolation and expansion technology platforms are based on fully reversible reagents that enable the advanced isolation and expansion of T cells during the manufacturing process. Juno will invest in commercially scaling these and other technologies for incorporation into next-generation CAR and TCR product candidates.
Related: Cell therapy Manufacturing - Production
