The Cross-Border Biotech Blog

This week Canada seems to have accounted for a significant chunk of the Western Hemisphere’s biopharma deal activity … by numbers, anyway. By dollars, all is dwarfed by the $3.1 billion Proctor & Gamble/Warner Chilcott deal, but don’t let that stop you from reading on

We’ll Call You, No Need to Call Us

File this one under “don’t see that every day.” A “syndicated group of biotech investors” proposed a financing to Microbix Biosystems Inc. (TSX: MBX), which, rather than looking a gift horse in the mouth, will raise up to $750,000 at $0.35 per unit. Each unit is one common share plus one 18-month $0.55 warrant.

Other Securities Deals

• Cardiome Pharma Corp. (NASDAQ: CRME) (TSX: COM) will proceed with a tender offer to purchase for cancellation up to 6,470,588 of its common shares for a purchase price of US$27.5 million. The modified Dutch auction will permit shareholders to tender their shares at prices between $4.25 – $5.10 per share. The ultimate purchase price determined by Cardiome will be the lowest price which permits Cardiome to purchase US$27.5 million of common shares.  The In Vivo Blog has an interesting take.
• Prism Medical Ltd. (TSX-V: PM) closed the private placement it launched a few weeks ago, issuing 350,118 common shares at $6.00 per share for gross proceeds of $2,100,708, shy of the announced $3 million target.
• BioSyntech, Inc. (TSX: BSY), developer of thermogels for regenerative medicine, made a number of announcements this week, which follow up on previously reported developments. They completed the placement of units for gross proceeds of $1.4 million; they received approval of the debenture-holders for the extension of the maturity date of the debentures; and the directors approved the rights offering, for which the company appears to have firmed up the full $3.1 million stand-by commitment.  We’ll see when they file the prospectus (maybe as soon as today).  They also re-jigged a royalty agreement with a licensor, Polyvalor, keeping the total cap on royalties the same, but changing some milestones and returning some unused IP.

M&A and Licensing

• Biovail (NYSE: BVF) (TSX: BVF) entered into an agreement with Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) to acquire rights in Canada and the U.S. to develop and commercialize Fipamezole for the treatment of dyskinesia in Parkinson’s disease.  Biovail pays $8 million up-front plus some relatively near-term milestones, including a further $4 million on successful closing of Santhera’s acquisition of Or Juvantia Pharma Ltd., and payment of up to $35 million in milestones associated with the 2011 planned initiation of a phase III study. Biovail is responsible for clinical and development program costs in the U.S. and Canada.  Santhera gets a co-promotion option in the U.S..   Sales-based milestones could eventually cost Biovail up to $145 million as well as royalty payments of 8-15% on net commercial sales of Fipamezole and  up to $20 million if Biovail pursues another indication.
• ConjuChem Biotechnologies Inc. (TSX: CJB) announced the closing of the deal with Colabor Income Fund (TSX: CLB.UN) resulting in $5 million in non-dilutive capital for ConjuChem, and a public corporate shell for Colabor. As discussed last week, the ConjuChem shuffle resulted in ConjuChem transferring its assets and liabilities to a Newco, while Colabor took over the ConjuChem shell. The transaction was completed as described in ConjuChem’s management information circular dated July 17, 2009. ConjuChem continues under the new entity with the same name and trading symbol.

Thanks again to Jacob Cawker for help with the post!