And finally...
BioTransplant Shareholders Approve Acquisition of Eligix
CHARLESTOWN, Mass., May 2 /PRNewswire/ -- BioTransplant Incorporated (Nasdaq: BTRN - news) announced today that its shareholders voted to approve the acquisition of Eligix, Inc., a privately held biomedical device company located in Medford, MA, in a stock-for-stock merger. Subject to the satisfaction of closing conditions, the merger is expected to be completed in the next few business days. Under the terms of the merger agreement, BioTransplant will issue 6.6 million shares of its common stock to the holders of shares of capital stock of Eligix.
Through this merger, BioTransplant seeks to strengthen its position in developing immune modulation and transplantation therapy in cancer and other life-threatening diseases. BioTransplant believes that its AlloMune(TM) System will benefit from Eligix's devices, enabling BioTransplant to offer, along with the MEDI-507 antibody, a comprehensive approach to increase the safety and efficacy of transplantation for cancer and other diseases. The two companies have complementary technologies, scientific expertise and collaborative relationships as well as complementary management teams that BioTransplant expects will significantly strengthen its research and development platform, and its commercial infrastructure.
BioTransplant's Chief Executive Officer, Elliot Lebowitz, Ph.D., said, ``We are delighted to have obtained the approval of our stockholders to complete this merger. The merger is expected to broaden our capabilities in developing proprietary technologies for the treatment of cancer, end-stage organ disease, and autoimmune and hematological disorders. With the acquisition of Eligix, we will seek to move from a development stage to a commercial stage company.''
Assuming that the merger is consummated as planned, the addition of Eligix will also add one late stage pipeline product, which entered Phase III clinical trials in 2001, and another expected to enter Phase III in Q1 2002. These two products, one of which has received CE mark approval and one of which will be submitted for CE mark approval, are also expected to add near- term European revenues beginning this year. Several additional product candidates garnered through the merger are in earlier phases of development and expand BioTransplant's current product development pipeline.
BioTransplant's AlloMune System is currently under clinical evaluation for therapy-refractory lymphoma, with potential application in other types of cancer, kidney transplantation, hematological and autoimmune diseases. Pilot studies have demonstrated that by allowing allogeneic (non-self) transplantation of donor bone marrow, the AlloMune System for cancer applications permits the introduction of healthy donor cells that can more aggressively attack tumor cells than the patient's own immune cells. Studies with the AlloMune prototype are also showing that this technology may be effective in reducing the need for lifelong immunosuppressive drug therapy.
Lazard Asset Management is acting as financial advisor to BioTransplant and Pacific Growth Equities, Inc. is acting as financial advisor to Eligix in this transaction.
Eligix, Inc. is a privately held biomedical company engaged in the development of cellular transplantation and immune therapies to enhance human immune response to cancers and infectious diseases, reduce the risk of infection and hypersensitivity reactions in blood transfusions and to achieve immune tolerance in organ transplant and autoimmune disorders. Eligix's core technologies originated as a result of research at Coulter Corporation, in collaboration with physicians at Harvard University's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Johns Hopkins University.
BioTransplant Incorporated utilizes its proprietary technologies under development to re-educate the body's immune responses to allow tolerance of foreign cells, tissues and organs. Based on this technology, the Company is developing a portfolio of products for application in a range of medical conditions, including organ and tissue transplantation, and treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases, for which current therapies are inadequate. BioTransplant's products under development are intended to induce long-term functional transplantation tolerance in humans, increase the therapeutic benefit of bone marrow transplants, and reduce or eliminate the need for lifelong immunosuppressive therapy... |
