BioCentury
ARTICLE | Company News

Arana, Cephalon deal

March 2, 2009 8:00 AM UTC

Cephalon made a takeout offer for autoimmune and cancer company Arana at A$1.40 per share in cash, or about A$318 million (US$205.2 million). Arana's independent directors unanimously recommended its shareholders accept the offer, which is a 69% premium to Arana's close of A$0.83 on Feb. 25, the last day of trading before the offer was announced. The deal value includes Cephalon's purchase earlier in the same week of a 19.9% stake in Arana from Start-up Australia Ventures Pty. Ltd. and Rockwell Securities Ltd. If Cephalon obtains 90% ownership in Arana, it will increase its bid to A$1.45 per share, valuing the company at A$329 million (US$212.5 million). Cephalon expects the offer to open for shareholders by mid-March. Cephalon will use its existing cash reserves to pay for the deal, which is contingent upon a minimum acceptance by 50.1% of the shareholders. Ferghana Partners Inc. and Deutsche Bank advised Cephalon.

Cephalon gains Arana's ART621, a human domain antibody (dAb) against tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alpha in Phase II testing to treat psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis. Arana also earns revenue from its antibody engineering technologies, including its Superhumanisation, Synhumanisation and EvoGene platforms. Cephalon said it was better equipped to take ART621 through development and that the deal would expand its autoimmune pipeline. Cephalon's lead autoimmune candidate is Lupuzor (formerly IPP-201101), which is in Phase II testing to treat systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Cephalon licensed the peptide fragment analog from ImmuPharma plc (LSE:IMM, London, U.K.) in February (see BioCentury, Feb. 9). ...