Pharmaceutical Business review

Enzon to spin off biotechnology business

Following the spin-off of the biotechnology company, Enzon will retain the current marketed products of Abelcet, Adagen, DepoCyt and Oncaspar, the rights to current PEG royalty revenues, including PEG-Intron, Cimzia and Hematide, and the manufacturing facility in Indianapolis. The company expects that the functional support associated with these operations will continue at Enzon. In addition, Enzon’s outstanding convertible notes would remain as obligations of the company.

The biotechnology company resulting from the spin-off will continue to leverage its customized PEGylation technology for licensing, collaboration and future royalty generation, and novel Locked Nucleic Acid technology to develop promising therapeutics for oncology. Enzon expects to sufficiently capitalize the new company with approximately $150 million of cash, representing approximately two to three years of anticipated cash need to fund research and development efforts based on company projections.

Upon completion of the spin-off, Jeffrey Buchalter will serve as chairman, president and CEO of the new biotechnology company and Craig Tooman, the current CFO of Enzon, will assume the role of president and CEO of Enzon. Each company will operate with independent management teams and additional details regarding management structure will be determined and disclosed at a later time.

Mr Buchalter said: “Operating separately will allow each company to benefit from greater strategic and managerial focus and appeal to their own unique shareholders.”