As part of the business combination, a $10 million private placement with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and an affiliate of F Hoffman-La Roche has also been completed at a price of $2.40 per Tekmira share. Tekmira now has working capital of greater than $35 million.
Tekmira has purchased all of the outstanding equity of Protiva by issuing approximately 22.8 million Tekmira shares and reserving approximately 1.8 million shares for issuance upon the exercise of Protiva stock options. Protiva is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Tekmira.
The new Tekmira will focus its business on advancing a pipeline of novel therapeutic products, including its lead RNAi therapeutic candidate, ApoB SNALP, as a treatment for hypercholesterolemia. The company will have rights to develop a total of seven RNAi therapeutic products based on access to Alnylam’s intellectual property. The company expects to file an investigational new drug application for ApoB SNALP in the next 12 months.
Alnylam has taken a broad license to the new Tekmira’s intellectual property and has sub-licensed the technology to Roche and has provided access to the technology to other companies, including Regulus Therapeutics. The new Tekmira is eligible to receive up to $16 million in milestones on each and every RNAi therapeutic advanced by Alnylam or its partners, including Roche, that utilizes the company’s technology, as well as royalties on product sales. Merck & Co has also taken a license to certain of the company’s intellectual property and Tekmira has the opportunity to form new alliances in the RNAi field.
The new Tekmira will also continue to support its alliance partners that have licensed the company’s lipid-based nanoparticle delivery technology in the field of RNAi therapeutics.