Affitech shareholders will own 70% of the new entity.
Pharmexa is taking over Affitech in a stock-for-stock transaction. Once closed, Pharmexa will transition from a cancer and infectious disease vaccine company to a pure antibody R&D firm.
On completion of the transaction, Affitech shareholders will own approximately 70% of the combined company, which will be called Affitech.
“Pharmexa has experienced product setbacks over the last year, which have led us to consider a variety of strategic options to revitalize the business and to generate future value for our shareholders,” comments Achim Kaufhold, CEO of Pharmexa. “The acquisition of Affitech builds on the expertise and capabilities of Pharmexa but is also a transformational event that moves us into the exciting field of antibody therapeutics one of the most attractive sectors of the biopharmaceutical industry.”
No one from Pharmexa was immediately available to comment on what will happen to its current vaccine development pipeline. Pharmexa has a number of candidates at all stages of development.
“Affitech has developed a fully integrated antibody discovery platform consisting of human antibody libraries with high functionality based on phagemid display technology plus several screening technologies with high degree of versatility,” notes Martin Welschof, CEO of Affitech. This technology will be used by the combined firm to generate its own therapeutic antibodies for development. Affitech currently has two compounds in preclinical programs for cancer and antibodies in discovery through to preclinical activities that are partnered.
