LONDON (Alliance News) - Pharmaceuticals firm Clinigen Group PLC's shares rose early Wednesday as it announced the purchase of the rights to one of Novartis International AG's drugs.
Shares were up 12% on Wednesday morning at a price of 826.60 pence each.
Clinigen is to paying USD210 million in cash to the Swiss firm for the rights to Proleukin in the US. Clinigen already owns the rights to the drug in the rest of the world.
Proleukin is a treatment for metastatic melanoma, and metastatic renal cell carcinoma.
It has the potential, Clinigen said, to become "an integral part" of cancer combination therapies, and is currently being used in around 80 active studies.
Clinigen will pay an initial USD120 million, with USD60 million deferred over the next 12 months and then a further USD30 million depending on Proleukin's sales.
Clinigen also provided some guidance for its first half ended December. It expects adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation to be GBP41.8 million, from GBP34.4 million a year prior.
Chief Executive Shaun Clinton said: "This highly earnings enhancing acquisition of US rights to Proleukin is significant to the whole group not just the Commercial Medicines division.
"As part of Commercial Medicines, Proleukin is an excellent fit within our oncology and infectious disease medicines as well as diversifying our wider portfolio - it will be the largest product in the portfolio in terms of current sales. The product has significant potential for revitalisation, which will provide further breadth and diversity to the portfolio and material increases in revenues," Clinton continued.
"For Clinigen as a whole, Proleukin creates an ideal platform to expand our existing footprint in the higher value US market and therefore enables us to exploit other opportunities across the business. This follows our acquisition last year of CSM and iQone which strengthened our Continental European footprint."
