Industry Outlook
GlobeNewswire | October 03, 2023
Amicus Therapeutics a global, patient-dedicated biotechnology company focused on discovering, developing, and delivering novel medicines for rare diseases, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement for a $430 million financing collaboration with funds managed by Blackstone. As part of the collaboration, Blackstone Life Sciences and Blackstone Credit have agreed to provide Amicus with a $400 million senior secured term loan facilitating a refinancing of existing debt and a $30 million strategic investment in Amicus’s common stock. The financing collaboration allows Amicus to grow revenues and move toward profitability while delivering on its mission for patients and its vision of being one of the leading biotechnology companies focused on rare diseases.
Bradley Campbell, President and Chief Executive Officer of Amicus Therapeutics, stated: “This new financing with Blackstone strengthens our balance sheet and financial profile by reducing the interest rate versus our current debt, pushing out the amortization schedule and extending the amortization period. This strategic investment demonstrates Blackstone's commitment to Amicus’ future and belief in the strong growth potential of Galafold and Pombiliti™ + Opfolda™ as we continue on our mission to develop medicines for people living with rare diseases.”
Key features of this transaction include
$400M senior secured term loan facility; interest rate at adjusted Term SOFR plus 6.25%, subject to a 2.50% floor on Term SOFR
$30M investment in Amicus common stock
Requires interest-only payments until late 2026 and matures in October 2029
The full amount of the loan and equity purchase will be available and fully drawn at the initial funding
The proceeds will be used to refinance Amicus’s existing debt and fund ongoing operations
Commenting on the arrangement, Craig Shepherd, Senior Managing Director with Blackstone Life Sciences and Brad Colman, Senior Managing Director with Blackstone Credit said: "Blackstone aims to provide customized financing solutions for the world’s leading biotech and pharma companies across therapeutic areas to support mission critical scientific innovation. We are excited to collaborate with Amicus and provide capital to advance their mission of bringing important new medicines to people living with rare diseases around the world."
Simon Harford, Amicus Chief Financial Officer, added: “Securing this financing with Blackstone as we launch Pombiliti™ + Opfolda™ around the world, allows us to better align our borrowing with anticipated cash flows while at the same time enhancing our ability to maximize access to our therapies for people living with rare diseases.”
Subject to completion of customary conditions, the loan is expected to be funded and the equity investment is expected to close on October 5, 2023.
About Amicus Therapeutics
Amicus Therapeutics is a global, patient-dedicated biotechnology company focused on discovering, developing and delivering novel high-quality medicines for people living with rare diseases. With extraordinary patient focus, Amicus Therapeutics is committed to advancing and expanding a pipeline of cutting-edge, first- or best-in-class medicines for rare diseases.
About Blackstone Life Sciences
Blackstone Life Sciences is an industry-leading private investment platform with capabilities to invest across the life cycle of companies and products within the key life science sectors. By combining scale investments and hands-on operational leadership, Blackstone Life Sciences helps bring to market promising new medicines and medical technologies that improve patients’ lives and currently has more than $8 billion in assets under management.
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Medical
businesswire | September 21, 2023
AbCellera announced that it has expanded its existing multi-target collaboration with Regeneron to discover therapeutic antibodies for up to eight targets selected by Regeneron, increased from the original four.
“Having successfully delivered on two challenging discovery campaigns under the original agreement, we are excited to expand the scope of our collaboration with Regeneron to include up to four additional targets,” said Carl Hansen, Ph.D., founder and CEO of AbCellera. “We look forward to using our antibody discovery and development engine to bolster Regeneron’s preclinical portfolio and help identify promising candidates for their programs.”
The collaboration, which began in March 2020, leverages AbCellera’s antibody discovery engine and Regeneron’s VelocImmune® mice to identify novel therapeutic antibodies. AbCellera has initiated programs for all four of the original targets, with Regeneron exercising its rights to advance antibody candidates into further preclinical development for the two programs that have been completed.
Under the terms of the agreement, Regeneron has the right to develop and commercialize therapeutic antibodies resulting from the collaboration. AbCellera receives research payments and is eligible to receive downstream clinical and regulatory milestone payments and royalties on net sales of products.
About AbCellera Biologics Inc.
AbCellera is breaking the barriers of conventional antibody drug discovery to bring better medicines to patients, sooner. AbCellera’s engine integrates expert teams, technology, and facilities with the data science and automation needed to propel antibody-based medicines from target to clinic in nearly every therapeutic area with precision and speed. AbCellera provides innovative biotechs and leading pharmaceutical companies with a competitive advantage that empowers them to move quickly, reduce cost, and tackle the toughest problems in drug development.
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Medical
GlobeNewswire | September 28, 2023
Repligen Corporation a life sciences company focused on bioprocessing technology leadership, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Metenova AB (Metenova) of Mölndal, Sweden. Metenova is projected to generate revenues of $24 million to $25 million for fiscal year 2023, led by the success of its magnetic mixing and drive train technologies that are widely used by global biopharmaceutical companies and contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs). The company recently entered the single-use mixing market with the launch of its MixOne platform, leveraging the success of its existing stainless steel (repeat-use) product line.
Metenova is expected to contribute approximately $5 million in revenue to Repligen in the fourth quarter of 2023, and to contribute $25 million to $27 million in revenue in 2024, with 20%-25% revenue growth in 2025 forward. The acquisition is anticipated to be accretive to Repligen’s adjusted gross and operating margins in 2024, and to be accretive to adjusted earnings per share in 2025.
Over the past decade, Metenova has established market leadership through design innovation in magnetic mixing, with a state-of-the-art suite of both stainless steel and single-use impellers (mixer heads) and drive trains – key components of mixing vessels. The company offers a broad range of products, including high power solutions for efficient media and buffer preparation, and low shear solutions for gentle mixing of sensitive proteins. Metenova’s high performance aseptic mixing technologies are designed to minimize product damage and improve product yield and product consistency, contributing to improved ROI for customers. The company’s solutions are applicable to a wide range of small molecule and large molecule therapeutics and vaccines, including monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins, and cell and gene therapies.
Tony J. Hunt, President and Chief Executive Officer at Repligen said, “The addition of Metenova further strengthens our Fluid Management portfolio, with a product line that expands on the market success of our systems and fluid management assemblies and complements our recently acquired single-use bag business from FlexBiosys. We are excited to welcome the Metenova team to Repligen and we look forward to further developing and integrating their differentiated magnetic mixing technologies into our portfolio.”
Johan Westman, Chief Executive Officer at Metenova said, “We have made tremendous progress over the last ten years, building a market leading mixing portfolio. We are now at a stage in our development where we can benefit from more rapid expansion into the single-use market where many of our customers are scaling today. Repligen is the ideal partner for us to take this next step of growth and we look forward to working with our colleagues at Repligen to drive additional global demand for our single-use mixing products, while continuing to advance innovative single-use solutions for the industry.”
About Metenova AB
Metenova is a leading innovator and manufacturer of magnetic mixers for pharmaceutical and biotechnology use. We provide aseptic cutting-edge mixing technology for critical applications. Sales are mainly performed by distributors in over 30 countries with approximately one-third of sales in North America, one-third of sales in Europe and one-third of sales in Asia/ROW. Metenova recently entered the single-use mixing market with the launch of its MixOne platform, leveraging the success of its existing repeat-use (stainless steel) product line. Metenova is headquartered in Mölndal in the Gothenburg area and has approximately 50 employees.
About Repligen Corporation
Repligen Corporation is a global life sciences company that develops and commercializes highly innovative bioprocessing technologies and systems that enable efficiencies in the process of manufacturing biological drugs. We are “inspiring advances in bioprocessing” for the customers we serve; primarily biopharmaceutical drug developers and contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) worldwide. Our focus areas are Filtration and Fluid Management, Chromatography, Process Analytics and Proteins. Our corporate headquarters are in Waltham, Massachusetts, and the majority of our manufacturing sites are in the U.S., with additional key sites in Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden.
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