Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Pharnext SA, a biopharmaceutical company pioneering a new approach to the development of innovative drugs based on the combination and repositioning of known drugs, today announced the signature of a strategic agreement with Tasly Pharmaceutical (Shanghai: 600535), a group ranked amongst China’s top 10 listed pharmaceutical companies. This partnership includes three axes: a financial investment by Tasly in Pharnext; the development of a new pipeline of synergistic combinations through a shared platform; and the license of Pharnext’s lead product for the Chinese market.
Pharnext has requested Euronext to resume trading on its stock exchange effective as of Euronext Paris market opening on Wednesday May 10th, 2017 at 9:00am CEST.
As a reminder, trading was suspended, as requested by the company and in agreement with the AMF (French Market Authority), on Tuesday May 9th, at 2:30pm (CEST).
The above-mentioned major agreement is composed as follows:
• An investment of €20 million by Tasly in Pharnext at a substantial premium over the current stock price, including: €5 million in shares at a price of €12.5 per share and €15 million in convertible bonds with a conversion price of €13 per share.
• The creation of a research and development Joint-Venture (JV), owned 30% by Pharnext, to develop new combinations of molecules. Programs will be pursued in several indications, primarily in cardiovascular and oncology therapeutic areas. Both companies will share their expertise: Pharnext in the development of synergistic combinations of drugs and Tasly in the use of traditional Chinese medicine wealth. Once the combination of molecules proof of concept is established in humans, commercialization rights will either be allocated to Pharnext and Tasly or licensed to third parties.
• A licensing agreement for the development and commercialization by the JV of the drug candidate PXT3003 for Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 1A disease on the Chinese market.
“This strategic partnership with Tasly is a major milestone: it confirms the global interest in and the value of our innovative technology platform, PLEOTHERAPY™. This partnership will provide access to new markets and new indications for Pharnext technology and products, while also integrating components of modernized traditional Chinese medicine,” said Prof. Daniel Cohen, M.D., Ph.D., Co-Founder and CEO of Pharnext. “We are very pleased and honored to collaborate with Tasly, a visionary company with an impressive history of revolutionizing the use of traditional Chinese medicine in a modernized form.”
“We are very pleased to enter into a meaningful collaboration with Pharnext,” said Mr. Yan Kaijing, Chairman of Tasly Pharmaceuticals. “The joint-venture we are creating has the potential to generate a robust pipeline of new therapeutics. This partnership allows us to secure a significant equity interest in Pharnext, as well as the Chinese commercialization rights for their lead asset for Charcot-Marie-Tooth Type 1A disease. We will rely on Tasly's advantages of its existing biomedical R&D platform and access to the Chinese hospital network; as well as Pharnext’s remarkable drug R&D technological know-how to develop high-potential drug combinations, addressing important unmet medical needs. Based on biological disease network pharmacology, this partnership will exploit the immense potential of modernized Chinese traditional medicine, characterizing in a novel and precise way the mechanism of action of each combination we will develop.”
