Arius, Roche deal
Roche will acquire antibody platform company Arius for about C$191 million (US$190.7 million) in cash. The deal includes the purchase of Arius’ common shares at C$2.44 and the purchase of issued and outstanding warrants at C$1.44-C$1.78. The per-share price is a 15% premium to Arius’ close of C$2.13 on July 22, the day before the deal was announced. Roche will gain Arius’ FunctionFirst antibody discovery and screening technology, which the pharma company will use initially to target cancer and inflammatory diseases. Arius’ lead mAb, AR001 (formerly ARH460-16-2), targets CD44 and is expected to start Phase I testing to treat refractory carcinomas by year end. Arius also has preclinical cancer antibodies AR002 (formerly AR47A6.4.2), a mAb against tumor-associated calcium signal transducer 2 (TROP-2) that is expected to start Phase I testing in 2009; AR003 (formerly AR36A36.11.1), a mAb against CD59; and an unnamed mAb that targets CD63, which is partnered with Genentech Inc. (NYSE:DNA, South San Francisco, Calif.). ...