US-based cancer treatment research company Boston Biomedical, which has been linked to Mitsui’s corporate venturing unit since at least 2008, has been sold to Japan-based pharmaceutical company for $200m upfront, in a transaction which could raise up to $2.6bn from Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma if all milestones are met.
Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma said yesterday it would pay development milestone payments up to $540m and $1.89bn in sales milestone payments.
The acquisition of 100% of Boston Biomedical follows it securing a strategic partnership with Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma last year. In that deal Boston Biomedical received $15m in upfront payment and clinical trial support, with an agreement to receive up to $100m depending on the performance of one of its cancer drugs.
The company lists its investors on its website as Mitsui Global Investments, which was called Mitsui Ventures when it first signed a fundraising backed by the company, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, a life science landlord, and the National Institute of Health, the US medical research agency.
In 2010 the company raised $2m, according to this filing and in 2008 the company raised $1m of a planned $3m round, according to this filing.
Both deals were signed by Taro Inaba, formerly president and chief executive of Mitsui Ventures, who is now a general manager in the Japan-based conglomerate’s clean tech and healthcare department, and serves on Boston Biomedical’s board according to its website.
Boston Biomedical was a spin out in 2006 from US-listed biotechnology firm ArQule by its former chief scientific officer Chiang Li. The company received a $5 million research contract from Arqule. Boston Biomedical was spun off from Arqule, as it re-focused away from drug discovery, according to this interview with Chiang Li in 2007 in news provider the Boston Business Journal, a time when the company’s scientists were facing imminent layoff, according to Boston Biomedical’s website. The article said Arqule did not take equity in the company, although it did retain rights to research conducted to Biomedical employees.