Cephalon/ImmuPharma – Top 10 biotech deal terminations of 2011

Posted under Blog, Cephalon, Companies, Diagnostics, Funding, ImmuPharma, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Pharmaceuticals, Startups, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Universities, Videos by John Carroll

Partners: Cephalon (acquired by Teva)/ImmuPharma
Based: $TEVA - Jerusalem; $IMM - London
Termination date: October 2011
Length: 2.9 years
Deal: $500 million
Program: ImmuPharma's midstage lupus treatment

What went wrong: Cephalon only bet $15 million on the option pact when it lined up rights to the ImmuPharma program in 2008. If the Phase IIb trial was positive, Cephalon would have the rights to essentially take control and run Phase III.

In late 2009, though, ImmuPharma was insisting that although the trial had failed to hit the overall primary efficacy endpoint, the subgroup of patients they intended to study did respond positively. CEO Dimitri Dimitriou said some of the trial centers recruiting patients had never modified their patient selection to reflect an amended criteria, continuing to enlist patients who didn't fit the profile.

Cephalon was already convinced, handing over $30 million to exercise the licensing option. But then Teva Pharmaceutical Industries stepped in to buy Cephalon, and ImmuPharma noted in a release in October that it asked for the program back, as Teva has a competing lupus drug in the pipeline.