Cardiome completes acquisition of Artesian Therapeutics

The completion of the acquisition closes the deal that was first made public when Cardiome announced that it had executed a letter of intent in late August 2005.

Under the terms of the acquisition, payments to Artesian shareholders are contingent on the achievement of certain pre-defined clinical milestones. The milestone payments will equal, in the aggregate, $32 million for each of the first two drug candidates from the Artesian programs that reach NDA approval. The first such milestone is due upon initiation of the clinical development of an Artesian drug candidate.

Artesian was founded in March of 2002 to discover and develop bi- functional small-molecule drugs for the treatment of cardiovascular disease, and currently has two advanced small molecule discovery programs in the area of congestive heart failure.

Artesian’s lead program is focused on a series of dual-pharmacophore compounds designed to simultaneously inhibit the cardiac phosphodiesterase enzyme (PDE3), causing inotropic effects, while inhibiting the L-Type Calcium channel to protect against calcium overload. Artesian’s second program focuses on a novel strategy to attenuate the deleterious effects of the excessive neurohormonal activation which occurs in congestive heart failure.