Biopharmaceutical company Sosei Group agreed on Tuesday to pay £35m ($45m) for a 25.6% stake in UK-based RNA therapy developer Mina Therapeutics and an option to buy the company.
Mina is working on an RNA activation platform that will treat disease by activating key genes, and its lead product is a prospective liver cancer treatment called MTL-CEBPA which is currently in a phase1/2a outreach study.
The company’s technology is based on technology developed by its founder and licensed to it by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Mina also signed a licensing agreement for intellectual property with the Regents of the University of California in 2014.
The deal includes provisions that would allow Sosei to buy additional shares for a specific price, and to fully acquire Mina for another £140m. Mina shareholders would then be eligible for up to £240m in additional milestone payments.
Peter Bains, Sosei’s CEO, said “We believe MTL-CEBPA could allow us to advance our pipeline strategy with a novel clinical asset that could be developed and ultimately commercialised by Sosei.
“We recognise that this asset is early stage and that more robust data will be available in the near term; these considerations have influenced the prudent and phased deal structure. We also believe that Mina’s RNA activation platform can be applied to other gene targets, providing the opportunity to create a pipeline of innovative products.”