Pharmaceutical firm Celgene has agreed to acquire US-based cancer treatment developer Impact Biomedicines in a $1.1bn deal that will give an exit to fellow pharmaceutical company Sanofi.
Impact is developing therapies for complex cancers based on fedratinib, an oral small-molecule inhibitor of the JAK2 kinase enzyme, which will address bone marrow disorders polycythemia vera and myelofibrosis.
The acquisition deal involves Celgene paying $1.1bn up front, but up to $1.4bn more could come from milestones linked to approvals for myelofibrosis and other indications, and sales-based milestones could potentially reach $4.5bn.
The company was founded in 2016 when it acquired the development and commercialisation rights for fedratinib from Sanofi, which in turn took an equity stake of undisclosed size in the company.
Fedratinib was originally developed by Sanofi but the company pulled its development in 2013 after the US Food and Drug Administration issued a clinical hold order.
Impact was able to convince the agency the issues were manageable, the hold was lifted, and the company told Fierce Biotech it expects to file a new drug application for fedratinib in the middle of 2018.
Impact’s only external equity funding was a $22.5m investment in October 2017 by venture capital firm Medicxi, though it did secure $90 million in structured debt financing from Oberland Capital shortly afterwards.
Medicxi was spun out of VC firm Index Ventures and is backed by pharmaceutical firms GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson and Novartis, as well as Verily, the life sciences arm of internet technology group Alphabet.
Credit Suisse was financial adviser for Celgene on the deal while Hogan Lovells was legal counsel. Impact’s financial adviser was PJT Partners and Latham & Watkins was legal counsel.