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news.Roche has agreed to acquire US-based clinical-stage biotechnology company Promedior in a deal valued at around $1.39bn.
Image: Roche branch offices in Basel. Photo: courtesy of F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.
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As per terms of the merger deal, Promedior will secure an upfront cash payment of $390m, as well as additional contingent payments of up to $1bn based on the achievement of certain predetermined development, regulatory and commercial milestones.
Based in Lexington of Massachusetts, Promedior is involved in the development if targeted therapeutics for the treatment of diseases involving fibrosis.
The company mainly focuses on rare fibrotic diseases such as pulmonary fibrosis and myelofibrosis. It has successfully advanced PRM-151 into human clinical trials.
Promedior CEO and Lightstone Ventures general partner Jason Lettmann said: “With over a decade of research, development and investment, Promedior has demonstrated the unique ability of its pentraxin-2 platform to deliver disease-modifying potential in fibrotic disorders.”
Supported by global healthcare venture investors such as Morgenthaler Ventures, HealthCare Ventures, Forbion, Easton Capital, Fibrotec Ventures, and Polaris Partners, the company has a major intellectual property portfolio related to the discoveries and applications of pentraxin-2 therapeutics.
The deal will allow Roche to acquire full rights Promedior’s entire portfolio of molecules for serious fibrotic diseases, including PRM-151. The company has successfully advanced PRM-151 into human clinical trials.
The PRM-151 is a recombinant form of human pentraxin-2 (PTX-2) protein, which showed both prevention and reversal of fibrosis.
Earlier this year, Promedior secured a breakthrough therapy designation for PRM-151 from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).
According to the company, the phase 2 trial results showed that PRM-151 is the first molecule to demonstrate lung function improvements on top of current therapies in IPF.
In addition, the PRM-151 demonstrated early clinical trial data in myelofibrosis and its anti-fibrotic mechanism has therapeutic potential in other fibrotic diseases, said the company.
Roche Pharma Partnering global head Dr James Sabry said: “We are excited to combine Promedior’s portfolio with our drug development capabilities to further advance PRM-151 in fibrotic diseases, including IPF and MF.”
Recently, Dicerna Pharmaceuticals has entered into a $1.67bn worth deal with Roche for the development of novel therapies to treat chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection using Dicerna’s GalXC RNAi platform technology.
