SuperGen will pay the Montigen stockholders a total of $18 million upon the closing of the transaction, consisting of $9 million in cash and $9 million in shares of SuperGen common stock.
SuperGen will also pay an additional $22 million in shares of SuperGen common stock, contingent upon achievement of specific regulatory milestones.
The proposed transaction is expected to close in March 2006 assuming the agreement of the Montigen stockholders and other customary closing conditions.
Montigen’s assets include its R&D team, a proprietary drug discovery technology platform and optimization process, and preclinical compounds targeting aurora-A kinase and members of the tyrosine kinase receptor family. One of the Montigen compounds is expected to be the subject of a pre-IND meeting later this year.
“We believe this acquisition will add force to our internal preclinical development efforts and will complement our ongoing in-licensing efforts focused on later stage compounds,” said Dr James Manuso, SuperGen’s president and CEO.