The Burrill Report


Celgene is paying $100 million to back three development-stage therapies under development at Acetylon Pharmaceuticals, plus the exclusive right to acquire the company for no less that $500 million.

Acetylon shareholders stand to receive up to $1.1 billion in future milestone payments should Celgene decide to buy the business. Their rewards would consist of $250 million for regulatory milestones and $850 million for sales achievements.

The deal adds to Celgene's growing string of cancer-focused equity investments, including recent bets on Presage Biosciences, Bluebird Bio, and Forma Therapeutics.

Celgene first bet on Acetylon's lead candidate for the blood cancer multiple myeloma, ACY-1215 with a $15 million strategic equity investment in February 2012. The new deal will fund advancement of that drug plus another for neurological diseases, ACY-738, and an unnamed project addressing cancer and non-cancer indications. Acetylon will retain control of all three development programs.

At the heart of Acetylon's portfolio of small molecule drugs is its epigenetic drug discovery platform. The company uses it to develop selective histone deacetylase inhibitors, drugs that inhibit enzymes in such a was as to control gene and protein function. The most advanced compound, ACY-1215, is still in early-stage trials, one of which is testing the drug in combination with Celgene’s multiple myeloma
therapy Revlimid and the steroid dexamethasone.



July 30, 2013
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-celgene_takes_100m_option_on_acetylon.html