Medigene AG, a clinical stage immunotherapy company, announced that Amgen Inc., USA, will acquire 100 per cent of Catherex, Inc., USA, a spin-off of Medigene. As a main shareholder of Catherex, Medigene Inc., USA, is entitled to approximately 40 per cent of payments to be made by Amgen. The company was informed about the execution of the corresponding purchase agreement by Catherex, Amgen and the shareholders of Catherex. Medigene Inc., USA, is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Medigene AG.
The former shareholders of Catherex will receive an upfront payment of USD 10.5 million from Amgen and will be entitled to milestone payments upon achievement of certain regulatory and sales-based milestones for Amgen's drug Imlygic (formerly T-Vec). In addition, royalty payments on the sale of Imlygic will be made until the end of 2020. Amgen's drug Imlygic was approved for the treatment of advanced, metastatic melanoma in the USA in October 2015 and recently in the European Union.
Closing of the transaction is envisaged to take place early 2016. Therefore, there is no impact on Medigene's financial guidance for 2015.
Dr. Frank Mathias, CEO of Medigene AG and president of Medigene Inc., comments, "This sale of an equity stake to Amgen enables Medigene to commercialise further assets derived from our portfolio. In addition to our recent announcement regarding the transfer of EndoTAG, this step supports Medigene's focus on immunotherapy as our core business."
Peter Llewellyn-Davies, CFO of Medigene AG and COO/managing director of Medigene Inc., adds, "With this transaction we have achieved our goal to profitably realize the previous investments made in Catherex. The upfront and milestone payments and the expected cash inflow of regular royalty payments from Amgen is part of our strategy to tap additional financial resources for the ongoing clinical development programmes of our innovative immunotherapies."
In April 2010, Medigene assigned its development programme of oncolytic (cancer-killing) herpes simplex viruses (oHSV), to Catherex, Inc., a private US company located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In return, Medigene received a 40 per cent stake in Catherex, making Medigene the main shareholder of this newly founded company. In 2014, Catherex spun off ongoing research and development projects and certain patent rights into the newly formed Aettis Inc. of which Medigene holds a 39 per cent stake. Since then, Catherex only owns a specific patent portfolio in the field of oncolytic viruses, which has now been acquired by Amgen.