BioCentury
ARTICLE | Strategy

NPS-Allelix plot their escape

October 4, 1999 7:00 AM UTC

Merger partners NPS Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Allelix Biopharmaceuticals Inc. hope to break their dependence on royalty-based partnerships by focusing their combined resources on their unpartnered late-stage products, while escaping the shadows that hide companies with valuations below $100 million.

Paul Van Damme, senior vice president and CFO at Allelix (TSE:AXB), said that as a US$40 million company with C$30 million (US$20.4 million) in cash, AXB hit a historical low this summer. At the same time, AXB knew it could last two years on existing resources if it did not conduct a Phase III trial of ALX 1-11, its recombinant parathyroid hormone to treat osteoporosis, which has completed Phase II trials. ...