Date: 2015-09-24
Type of information: Company acquisition
Acquired company: BioNovion (The Netherlands)
Acquiring company: Aduro Biotech (USA - CA)
Amount: € 29 million
Terms: * On September 24, 2015, Aduro Biotech and BioNovion announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for Aduro to acquire BioNovion, a privately held monoclonal antibody discovery and development company based in The Netherlands. Under the terms of the agreement, Aduro will pay BioNovion € 14.5 million in cash and € 14.5 million in Aduro stock. In addition, BioNovion shareholders are eligible to receive payments upon the completion of specific regulatory milestones. The transaction is subject to certain closing conditions, which are expected to conclude in October 2015. Upon close of the transaction, Aduro plans to maintain BioNovion\'s current 24-person operations as a subsidiary of Aduro in Pivot Park, Oss, the Netherlands, Drs. Andrea van Elsas and Hans van Eenennaam, BioNovion\'s chief scientific officer and chief operating officer respectively, will retain the same titles of the subsidiary.
Details: The acquisition will further strengthen and expand Aduro\'s immunotherapy capabilities to now encompass monoclonal antibodies, including preclinical assets that inhibit clinically validated immune checkpoint pathways. Such immune checkpoint inhibitors could potentially be used alone or in combination with Aduro\'s LADD and CDN platforms to increase immunotherapy potency and durability. In addition, BioNovion has a rich pipeline of novel preclinical monoclonal antibodies which inhibit or activate unique immune response pathways that have a role in controlling the progression of diverse malignancies. BioNovion has developed a proprietary technology to rapidly produce a broad library of therapeutic antibodies against validated targets, including PD1 and CTLA-4, as well as several undisclosed novel targets. Also, BioNovion\'s pipeline includes an APRIL antagonist and five bispecific antibody programs against immune-oncology targets under collaboration with Genmab using Genmab\'s proprietary DuoBody Technology. BioNovion specializes in immune oncology antibody discovery. The company\'s B-cell selection platform enables full and highly effective exploration of immunoglobulin diversity. In a unique combination with functional screening, the platform has successfully developed leading antibody candidates. In close collaboration with world-class cancer institutes, such as the Dutch Cancer Institute, NKI-AVL in Amsterdam, and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA, BioNovion is validating the therapeutic potential of its innovative antibodies in immune oncology.
Related: Monoclonal antibody Immune checkpoint inhibitor
