February 10, 2015

Monday Deal Review - February 9, 2015

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Welcome to your Monday Biotech Deal Review for February 9th, 2015!

 

This week saw Actavis and AstraZeneca announce that AstraZeneca will acquire the rights to Actavis’ branded respiratory business in the U.S. and Canada for an initial consideration of about $600 million, with royalties tied to revenues.

Further, Valeant Pharmaceuticals announced that they’ve entered into an amended asset purchase agreement to acquire the world-wide rights to Dendreon’s PROVENGE®, along with other assets with an offer of $400 million. Interestingly, this amended asset purchase agreement increases the purchase price from the original $296 million purchase price.

For more details on these stories as well as many more, keep reading!

 

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Neovasc Inc. (“Neovasc” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: NVCN) (TSX-V: NVC) is pleased to announce the closing of its previously announced underwritten public offering of 12,075,000 common shares of the Company at a price per share of US$7.19 (the “Offering”) for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately US$74,883,850 for the Company and US$11,935,400 for the Selling Securityholders (as defined below) before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses payable by the Company and the Selling Securityholders.

M Pharmaceutical Inc., formerly First Sahara Energy Inc. ( the “Company”) (CSE:MQ) announces that it has closed its previously announced private placement on an over-subscribed basis. The Company has issued 43,750,000 units at $0.02 per unit for gross proceeds of $875,000. Each unit consists of one common share in the capital of the Company (a “Common Share”) and one Common Share purchase warrant (a “Warrant”) entitling the holder to purchase one additional Common Share for $0.05 for a period of 12 months from closing of the Financing.

PharmaCan Capital Corp. (TSX VENTURE:MJN) (“PharmaCan”) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a $500,000, five year, 7.5% fixed rate, interest only mortgage with a private party with respect to its wholly owned subsidiary, In The Zone Produce Ltd. (“In The Zone”). The proceeds from this financing will be used to further the development of In The Zone and for general corporate purposes.

Ceapro Inc. (TSX VENTURE:CZO) (“Ceapro” or the “Company”), a growth-stage biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of active ingredients for healthcare and cosmetic industries, announced that it has closed a $310,000 second tranche of its previously announced private placement of eight (8) percent unsecured convertible debentures (the “Debentures”) due December 31, 2016, with interest payable on June 30 and December 31 of each year. Pursuant to the terms of the Debentures, Ceapro will have the option to satisfy interest payments through the issuance of common shares based on the volume weighted average trading price of the common shares for the 20 trading days immediately prior to the interest obligation date. The Debentures are convertible into common shares of Ceapro at a price of $0.64 per common share and may be called for redemption upon 60 days’ notice. The Debentures and any common shares issued upon conversion of the convertible debentures are subject to a four-month hold period from the date of issue of the Debentures.

Inocucor Technologies, Inc., the Montreal-based ag biotech company that develops sustainable soil, seed and plant accelerators for agriculture, announced it has raised an interim round of investment capital from two of Canada’s leading financial groups. Cycle Capital Management, a Montreal Cleantech venture capital fund that made its first investment in Inocucor in late 2013, led the round with participation from Desjardins Innovatech, Canada’s leading cooperative financial group with more than $200 billion in assets.

 

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Actavis plc (NYSE: ACT) and AstraZeneca announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which AstraZeneca will acquire the rights to Actavis’ branded respiratory business in the U.S. and Canada for an initial consideration of $600 million on completion and low single-digit royalties above a certain revenue threshold. Upon completion of the transaction, AstraZeneca will own the development and commercial rights in the U.S. and Canada to Tudorza™ Pressair™ (aclidinium bromide inhalation powder), a twice-daily long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and Daliresp® (roflumilast), the only once-daily oral PDE4 inhibitor currently on the market for COPD. The two products had combined annual sales in the U.S. of approximately $230 million in 2014.  AstraZeneca will also own development rights in the U.S. and Canada for LAS40464, the combination of a fixed dose of aclidinium with formoterol long acting beta agonist (LAMA/LABA) in a dry powder inhaler, which is approved in the EU under the brand name Duaklir® Genuair®. AstraZeneca will also pay Actavis an additional $100 million, and Actavis has agreed to a number of contractual consents and approvals, including certain amendments to the ongoing collaboration agreements between AstraZeneca and Actavis.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc (NYSE: VRX and TSX: VRX) announced that it entered into an amended and restated “stalking horse” asset purchase agreement to acquire the world-wide rights to Dendreon’s PROVENGE® (sipuleucel-T) product and certain other assets of Dendreon Corporation (“Dendreon”).  In response to competing bids, Valeant has raised its offer to $400 million in cash for the assets, which realized combined revenues of approximately $300 million in 2014. Valeant had previously announced that, on January 29, 2015, it had entered into an asset purchase agreement constituting a “stalking horse bid” in a sale process being conducted under Section 363 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.  The amended and restated asset purchase agreement increases the purchase price from the original $296 million purchase price.

BioPharma Services Inc. (BPSI) is pleased to announce it has entered into a partnership and joint venture agreement with Scentryphar, a leading CRO located in Sao Paulo. The partnership will support local and global sponsors looking to bring generic and innovative drugs to the Brazilian market by offering one stop shopping and joint expertise in clinical conduct, bioanalysis, data management, statistics as well as scientific and medical writing.

Response Biomedical Corp. (“Response” or “the Company”) (TSX:RBM)(OTCBB:RPBIF) announced that it has expanded the scope of its agreement to distribute its Cardiovascular portfolio of RAMP® products with Shanghai Elite Biotech Co., Ltd. (“Shanghai Elite”). Effective April 23, 2015, Shanghai Elite will become the exclusive national distributor in China for Response’s RAMP® branded cardiovascular Point of Care Testing (“POCT”) portfolio.

Intelligent Hospital Systems (IH Systems), maker of RIVA automated IV compounding technology, announced it has sold a fourth RIVA Chemotherapy system in Canada. The RIVA Chemo system will be installed in a new hospital being built in northwest Toronto.

Perspecsys, the leader in enterprise cloud data protection gateway solutions, announced that Human Care Systems is extending its successful European deployment of Perspecsys’ AppProtex Cloud Data Protection Gateway to power its growing Canadian operations. Human Care Systems initially selected Perspecsys’ solution because of its ability to provide the highest levels of data compliance and protection without impacting the usability and functionality of the cloud-based SaaS applications used by their business. Perspecsys’ advanced architecture and highly secure form of tokenization allows Human Care Systems to easily comply with an increasingly complex set of data governance requirements that are emerging around the globe while they enjoy the business benefits of using the latest SaaS cloud applications.

Caprion announced an exclusive agreement to in-license Xpresys Lung in Canada from Indi (Integrated Diagnostics®). Xpresys Lung is a breakthrough, molecular diagnostic blood test that assists with the management of indeterminate lung nodules. The clinical laboratory developed test is currently only available in the United States and provides physicians with objective information to identify nodules with a high probability of being benign – potentially reducing unnecessary invasive procedures, which may be risky for the patient and costly to the healthcare system.

 

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Contextual Genomics, a molecular diagnostics company developing genomic based cancer tests, and the Personalized Medicine Initiative (PMI), an organization bringing molecular-based medicine to Canadians, are pleased to welcome AstraZeneca to its National Access Project consortium. The project’s aim is to make genomic cancer testing available to any Canadian diagnosed with cancer to improve precision in cancer diagnosis, enable tailored treatment options and, ultimately, support better health outcomes. AstraZeneca has provided a grant and technical advice as part of its commitment to the National Access Project for Cancer Testing.

At an announcement made earlier at MaRS Discovery District, Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, confirmed its commitment to research and innovation by contributing a total of $7.5 million to the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) Toronto and its network, thereby becoming a member of the consortium.

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. (the “Company”) (NASDAQ:AUPH / TSX:AUP) announced that the Company has recently been granted patents by the Japanese and Chinese patent offices for its nanomicellar formulation of voclosporin. These are in addition to multiple other patents that have been issued and granted in the United States, Mexico and Australia for ophthalmic administration of voclosporin. Further patent prosecution in other regions is ongoing.

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