Renovis IPO
Disclosure: I have a major stake in this matter and am definitely not disinterested, since my IP is involved. See nitrone.com.
First, a typo--Centaur "paid" Renovis $3.25 million ( not $3.75 mil ) for the stock deal. This is the $4.5 mil milestone payment from Astrazeneca that went to Renovis as Centaur's successor, minus the $1.25 mil upfront payment to Centaur. Money is fungible...
More on the economics: The Renovis prospectus says they are to receive "mid-teen" royalties from AstraZeneca. The market for a stroke drug may be as much as $2.8 billion a year and there does not seem to be anything comparable on the horizon.
If Cerovive fulfills its promise, it will be malpractice not to use it on stroke patients. So, say $200-400 million a year in Royalties.
This raises the obvious questions of why AstraZeneca did not buy just Centaur's IP when it was so cheap or why Centaur's original investors pulled the plug ? But it also tells us why Renovis in the coming IPO values itself at about $350 mil, mainly on the basis of IP that cost them about $25 million in newly-printed stock. The deal of the century on paper.
In their purchase agreement ( hoovers.com ) Centaur agrees to reimburse Renovis for any costs incident to:
"(viii) the patent infringement claim described in Part 2.26 of the Seller Disclosure Schedule relating directly or indirectly to the Seller’s manufacture, sale or use of any nitrones contained in the Seller’s compound library that function as spin-traps or free radical scavengers, or any derivatives or analogs thereof, prior to the Closing Date, or the manufacture, use or sale of such compounds by the Purchaser following the Closing Date,.....
Interestingly, elsewhere in the agreement, Centaur completely denies any patent problems. Sic:
"The Seller has never received any notice or other communication (in writing or, to the best of the knowledge of the Seller, otherwise) of any actual, alleged, possible or potential infringement, misappropriation or unlawful or unauthorized use of, any Proprietary Asset owned or used by any other Person."
In this regard, nitrone.com, US patent 5,732,502 (covering use of PBN and other nitrones as drugs) has a priority date years before any of Renovis' patents, includes all elements of "Cerovive" ( the disulfate of my parent drug, PBN ), and specifically mentions "stroke" and "parenteral" use. Check it out.. |
