Print“This acquisition represents an ideal transition between biotech and pharma and may provide an optimal outcome for the SERD program and the breast cancer patient community, says Richard Heyman, CEO of Seragon. ”
James Sabry, Genentech’s vice president of partnering, is an advocate of Big Pharma partnering early with biotech, in part to get in early to help shape the direction of research programs. Now Genentech, a division of Swiss pharmaceutical Roche, has backed that strategy with an agreement to acquire Seragon Pharmaceuticals for up to $1.7 billion to gain rights to the San Diego-based biotech’s portfolio of investigational next-generation oral selective estrogen receptor degraders, or SERDs, for the potential treatment of hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. The deal gives the oncology powerhouse a potential new approach for estrogen driven cancers that include endometrial and ovarian cancers.
It’s also a coup for the biotech’s founders and investors, which include The Column Group, OrbiMed Advisors, Aisling Capital, TopSpin, and venBio. When Johnson & Johnson snapped up Aragon Pharmaceuticals in June 2013 for $650 million in cash upfront, it was only interested in the biotech’s most advanced compound, a mid-stage treatment for castration–resistant prostate cancer. Richard Heyman, Aragon’s CEO and co-founder, spun out its other drug in development, an early-stage SERD in testing as a treatment for estrogen receptor positive metastatic breast cancer, into a new company—Seragon Pharmaceuticals—and raised $30 million in a series A financing that was expected to carry it into mid-stage trials and an eventual licensing pact.
Instead Seragon’s management team and investors will cash in on the $725 million that Genentech has agreed to pay in cash upfront for the company, plus additional contingent payments of up to $1 billion based on achievement of certain predetermined milestones.
“This acquisition represents an ideal transition between biotech and pharma and may provide an optimal outcome for the SERD program and the breast cancer patient community,” says Heyman.
Seragon’s lead product candidate, ARN-810, is a next-generation SERD that is currently in early-stage clinical trials for patients who have hormone receptor-positive breast cancer and have failed current hormonal agents. These next-generation SERDs complement Genentech’s existing research and development programs in breast cancer.
“Approximately 229,000 new breast cancer diagnoses are made in the United States each year, breast cancer will claim the lives of nearly 40,000 women in the United States, and up to half of these women will have a disease that is driven by the estrogen receptor,” says Richard Scheller, executive vice president and head of Genentech Research and Early Development. “We believe these investigational oral SERDs could one day redefine the standard of care for hormone receptor-positive breast cancer.”
Women with estrogen receptor positive breast cancer are treated with first generation anti-hormonal therapies such as tamoxifen or the aromatase inhibitors that modulate the receptor. While initially effective, many patients experience disease progression due to acquired resistance. Seragon’s SERDs are next generation therapies that have a dual mechanism of action in that they both bind to the estrogen receptor to antagonize hormone action, and they promote receptor degradation. These SERDs are initially being developed for the treatment of women with late-stage, progressive estrogen receptor positive metastatic breast cancer, but they also have potential in treating patients with early-stage breast cancer. They may also offer an opportunity to be the cornerstone for future combination therapies.
The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2014 at which time Seragon’s portfolio will be integrated into Genentech Research and Early Development.
July 06, 2014
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-genentech_buys_seragon_pharmaceuticals_for_up_to_1_7b.html
