Curacyte AG, a late stage drug discovery and development company, has merged with IBFB Pharma GmbH. IBFB Pharma is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in discovery and development of therapeutics to treat a variety of inflammatory diseases. Curacyte AG will remain a financial holding with three wholly owned operating subsidiaries in Leipzig, Jena (Germany) and Chapel Hill, NC (USA) employing approximately 50 staff. The combined company's headquarters will relocate from Munich to Leipzig.
In addition, Curacyte announced the successful completion of a €16.5 ($21.6) million Series C private placement. This financing round will support the development of the company's combined product portfolio. The syndicate includes new investors CFH Corporate Finance Holding GmbH, IBG Beteiligungsgesellschaft Sachsen-Anhalt mbH, S-Beteiligungsmanagement Leipzig GmbH and Mittelständische Beteiligungsgesellschaft Sachsen mbH as well as existing Curacyte shareholders Techno Venture Management (TVM), GZ Paul Partners, IKB Private Equity, Alpinvest, and Stroh Companies. Terms of the merger and Series C Financing transaction were not disclosed.
According to the release, the merger creates a biopharmaceutical company with a rich clinical, pre-clinical and discovery pipeline of medicines to treat inflammatory and cardiovascular diseases. Curacyte's lead product, PHP, is in phase 3 clinical development for distributive shock and phase 1 as a concomitant treatment for interleukin-2 (IL-2) treated patients with renal cell carcinoma and metastatic melanoma. Supported by encouraging results from a recent Phase 2c clinical trial of PHP in distributive shock, Curacyte is currently in discussions with potential pharmaceutical partners who have the ability to develop and market the product. The combined company has several pre-clinical products, scheduled to enter clinical development in 2006. Apart from establishing therapeutic focus, IBFB complements Curacyte's research resulting in leading edge drug discovery operations.
Commenting on the merger Dr. Helmut Schühsler, chairman of the Curacyte Supervisory Board said: "With this merger and the concomitant financing, Curacyte has strengthened its science base and its product pipeline. The investment will be sufficient to take the company through to important value creating events. In my mind, Curacyte is now among the most attractive later stage companies in the German market."