Daiichi Sankyo pays $410m for Ambit Biosciences
pharmafile | September 29, 2014 | News story | Sales and Marketing | AML, Daiichi Sankyo, ambit biosciences, quizartinib
Daiichi Sankyo has bought San Diego-based Ambit Biosciences in a deal aimed at shoring up the Japanese company’s cancer research.
Daiichi says in a statement that it will acquire all of the outstanding common stock of Ambit Biosciences for $15 per share in cash, which works out at around $315 million on a fully diluted basis.
In addition to the upfront cash payment, each Ambit Biosciences stockholder will receive one Contingent Value Right (CVR), meaning each holder can receive an additional cash payment of up to $4.50 for each share they own – if certain sales-related milestones are achieved.
The total transaction is valued at up to $410 million and builds upon several recent acquisitions from Daiichi, including its purchase of Germany’s U3 Pharma AG in 2008 and California-based Plexxikon in 2011, both designed to add cancer therapies to the company’s pipeline.
Ambit Biosciences, a US biopharma company, is focussed on the discovery and development of medicines to treat unmet medical needs in oncology, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases by inhibiting enzymes that are important drivers for those diseases.
Daiichi are buying into Ambit’s lead drug candidate quizartinib, which is currently in Phase III clinical trials among certain patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).
“Daiichi Sankyo is the ideal organisation to take quizartinib to the next stage of development, and ultimately, to achieve our goal of making it available as quickly as possible to help as many AML patients as possible,” says Michael Martino, president and chief executive of Ambit Biosciences.
Ambit reported a net loss of about $11 million last year and revenue of $27 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Fellow native Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma had previously owned global rights to develop and sell quizartinib, but terminated that agreement last year, saying the drug didn’t fit its strategy.
But Mahmoud Ghazzi, global head of development for Daiichi, believes the drug is the right fir for his firm, saying: “Quizartinib will fit seamlessly into our already robust oncology pipeline focused on targeted therapies with the potential for personalising the treatment of cancer.
“With the acquisition of Ambit Biosciences, Daiichi Sankyo gains additional opportunities to develop promising treatments for cancer, including the global rights to quizartinib, currently being studied in patients with refractory AML, a very serious condition for which no new therapies have been approved for more than 30 years.”
Ben Adams
Related Content
FDA accepts BLA for AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s datopotamab deruxtecan for breast cancer treatment
AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo have announced that their Biologics License Application (BLA) for datopotamab deruxtecan …
EMA validates two applications for datopotamab deruxtecan for cancer treatments
AstraZeneca has announced that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has validated to marketing authorisation applications …
Daiichi Sankyo shares results for Ezharmia as lymphoma treatment
Daiichi Sankyo has announced results from the phase 2 VALENTINE-PTCL01 trial of Ezharmia (valemetostat tosilate), …
