UPDATED: Celgene snaps up Avila Therapeutics in $925M buyout

Posted under Avila Therapeutics, AVL-292, Blog, Celgene, Clovis Oncology, Companies, Diagnostics, Funding, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Pharmaceuticals, Startups, Universities, Videos by John Carroll

In less than five years Avila Therapeutics nailed down a reputation as an exciting developer of covalent drugs, with a lead Btk inhibitor for cancer garnering attention at a very early stage of development. Today it turned that excitement into a $925 million buyout deal with Celgene ($CELG), with $350 million of that coming in cash.

The jewel in Avila's crown is AVL-292, a Btk inhibitor now in Phase I. The dealmakers involved in the buyout snagged a $195 million commitment for milestones leading up to a potential approval for that program. And Celgene will add the Avilomics platform to its R&D division, with another $380 million in back-end payments for the progress of other drug candidates that spring off the platform.

The Bedford, MA-based biotech was named a Fierce 15 company back in 2010, not long after the company garnered its last venture round of $30 million. Avila has been recognized for its novel approach to protein silencing, with much of the attention centered on its lead therapy for B cell cancers. The developer also has two candidates for hepatitis C--AVL-181 and AVL-192 targeting the NS3 protein--believing that its ability to create better bonds can deliver a best-in-class drug for one of the world's hottest disease categories.

Avila--which was co-founded by Juswinder Singh, who earlier led the computational chemistry efforts at Biogen Idec ($BIIB)--has development deals in place with Clovis as well as the Novartis Option Fund. The fund led the last round, with help from Abingworth, Advent Venture Partners, Atlas Venture and Polaris, which are all counting their returns this morning. Katrine Bosley, the CEO, gets much of the credit for building the value of the company.

Atlas Venture's Bruce Booth heralded the deal in a blog post this morning, noting that Avila raised a total of $51 million over five years, giving investors a 5x return in a timely fashion, with a potential 15x on the backside. By anyone's calculations, that's a coup.

In baseball parlance, the deal was a "grand slam," says Mike Bigham, the founding CEO and partner at Abingworth, where Avila was initially incubated. For Bigham, whose firm also invested in Micromet and scored a payout late last year with Takeda's buyout of Intellikine, the deals help underscore that "M&A has increasingly become the preferred exit pathway for young companies."

Avila was Bigham's third startup, after Gilead and Coulter. And each provided a compelling story on their technological approach to drug development while fielding a strong team of senior executives early on. "I'm a big believer in hiring talented senior people early in a company," says Bigham. "It's a way of turnocharging a company early on."

"Celgene and Avila are uniquely matched, both strategically and scientifically," said Bosley. "Celgene's global leadership in hematology and emerging franchise in immune-inflammatory diseases will accelerate and expand the clinical development of our Btk inhibitor program. Equally important, we value the high standards of creativity and rigor of Celgene's scientists. We believe working together may accelerate the advancement of more innovative medicines from the Avilomics platform."

- here's the press release

Special Report: Celgene - Biotech's Biggest Spenders 2011

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Avila pockets payment in $209M lung cancer drug deal

Avila pockets payment in $209M lung cancer drug deal

Posted under Avila Therapeutics, Blog, Clovis Oncology, Companies, Diagnostics, Funding, lung cancer, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Pharmaceuticals, Startups, Universities, Videos by Ryan McBride

Avila Therapeutics (a 2010 Fierce 15 company) has banked $4 million from partner Clovis Oncology ($CLVS). The payment was made as part of Avila's $209 million alliance with Clovis (a 2009 Fierce 15 company) struck in 2010 to develop Avila's covalent inhibitor of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations in non-small cell lung cancer. Avila said the payment was triggered after the FDA allowed Clovis' investigational new drug (IND) application for early trials of the compound, dubbed CO-1686, expected to kick off in the second quarter. Release

Clovis Oncology – Biotech IPOs of 2011

Posted under Biotech IPO, Blog, Clovis Oncology, Companies, Diagnostics, Funding, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Pharmaceuticals, Startups, Universities, Videos by Maureen Martino

Company: Clovis Oncology ($CLVS)
Based: Boulder, CO
Raised: $130 million (10M shares of stock at $13)
Target range: $13 to $15
Current price: $14.54

Scoop: Clovis Oncology CEO Patrick Mahaffy, a Pharmion co-founder, raised $145 million in venture capital with no drugs in the pipeline, but a slate of experienced biotech executives dedicated to identifying a handful of promising oncology drug programs for development. The company, which was named a 2009 Fierce 15 winner the same year it was founded, quickly got to work inking a string of deals with promising developers in the field. First came a $380 million deal with Clavis Pharma for midstage pancreatic drug CP-4126. Pacts with Avila Therapeutics ($209M), another deal with Clavis, and a companion diagnostics deal with Swiss drug giant Roche soon followed. 

In November, Clovis decided it was time to take its chances on the public market, aiming for the sale of 10 million shares for $13 to $15 each. The developer ultimately priced at the low end of its range, which is still an accomplishment in a year in which so many biotechs had to cut their prices in order to go public. Clovis plans to use the funding to support its pipeline of ambitious drug programs.

Sanofi antibiotics partner Rib-X aims for $80M IPO

Posted under antibiotic, Biotech IPO, Blog, Clovis Oncology, Companies, Diagnostics, Funding, GSK, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Pharmaceuticals, Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, Sanofi, Startups, Universities, Videos by Ryan McBride

Antibiotics developer Rib-X Pharmaceuticals wants to go public after burning through more than $238 million since 2000. The New Haven, CT-based company hasn't said how many shares it plans to sell in the hoped-for initial public offering, but the proposed IPO sum is $80 million, according to an SEC document.

The developer (a 2011 Fierce 15 company) has arrived with its plans to go public carrying a partnership with Sanofi ($SNY), a lead drug that is slated to enter late-stage trials next year, and no products on the market. Delafloxacin, the company's most advanced drug, is in a Phase IIb clinical study as a first line of attack against skin infections, and the drug could be useful to treat infections caused by MRSA bugs. To combat the most difficult-to-treat infections, the developer has been focusing on drugs that home in on binding sites in bacterial ribosomes. Sanofi inked a deal with Rib-X for a preclinical drug that works like this called RX-04, bringing Rib-X a $10 million upfront payment and $9 million in near-term research funding.

Rib-X's bid to go public comes after some interesting biotech IPO activity this month. Clovis Oncology wrapped up a $130 million IPO before Thanksgiving, garnering the lower end of its projected share price for the public debut, and cancer drug developer NewLink Genetics finished a smaller $43.4 million initial public offering, settling for a lower share price than it had previously sought. Cambridge, MA-based Verastem is testing the IPO waters with plans to develop drugs that target cancer stem cells, even though the company's research hasn't advanced beyond the preclinical phase.

Rib-X steps up to the plate with an antibiotics pipeline. While there's been a call for new antibiotics to fight drug-resistant bugs, Big Pharma has generally kept its distance from the field because of market challenges. For one thing, antibiotics are only taken temporarily, while patients with chronic diseases could take drugs for their illnesses for their entire life. Rib-X bucked the Big Pharma trend to an extent with its Sanofi deal, and its CEO Mark Leuchtenberger led his last antibiotics company Targanta Therapeutics to an IPO.

Rib-X has already won over a lineup of private equity investors, raising $208.4 million from backers such as Warburg Pincus, Saints Capital, GSK's SR One, Medimmune Ventures and Oxford Bioscience Partners. The company had cash and cash equivalents of $9.7 million as of Sept. 30, according to its SEC filing.

- here's the company's release
- read the SEC filing
- and Xconomy's coverage

Special Report: Rib-X Pharmaceuticals - 2011 Fierce 15

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