Scandinavian biopharmaceutical company, Nuevolution accepted Amgen’s cash offer of approximately SEK 1.61bn ($167m).
Nuevolution has developed Chemetics, a patent protected DNA-encoded library drug discovery platform, which enables discovery of novel small molecule drug candidates.
Three of Nuevolution's projects are currently in late preclinical studies, with the potential of reaching clinical trials by the end of 2019. To date, Nuevolution has entered partnership deals with 17 companies, including Janssen, Novartis, MSD, Boehringer Ingelheim and GSK.
Amgen announced that Nuevolution’s management will remain in place and all full-time employees will be offered a retention arrangement, stating that it “values the skills and talents of Nuevolution’s management and employees, and intends to continue to safeguard the excellent relationship that Nuevolution has with its employees.”
The two companies have been working collaboratively since 2016 on cancer and neuroscience drug discovery.
Two of the cancer programs developed under this collaboration are, according to Amgen progressing ‘at high-speed’, therefore the latter company has exercised its contractual opt-in right regarding those programs.
Answering whether Amgen plans to invest in expanding Nuevolution’s capabilities, Amgen said that it “does not currently intend to alter the operations of Nuevolution or locations where Nuevolution conducts business.”
The deal is estimated to be settled by July 15th, 2019.
