Daiichi Sankyo acquires German cancer antibodies firm U3 Pharma AG

Acquisition

Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. is to acquire the privately held U3 Pharma AG, a German cancer antibodies specialist, for €150 million cash. U3 Pharma, based in Martinsried, Germany, was founded by Axel Ullrich of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, whose research led to the development of the oncology drugs Herceptin and Sutent.

U3 Pharma was established in 2001 and employs 27 people, most of whom work in research and development. The company’s investors include Alta Partners, Atlas Venture, E. de Rothschild Investment Partners, Life Science Partners and Karsten Henco, as well as private individuals from the biotech and pharmaceutical industries.

U3 Pharma’s pipeline includes programmes focusing on fully human antibodies as potential therapies for breast, lung and colorectal cancers, among others. The lead product, which is being co-developed with Amgen, is U3-1287 (AMG 888), the first fully human anti-HER3 monoclonal antibody, to inhibit oncogenic signalling and tumor proliferation.

The partners intend to initiate clinical development of the compound this year.

Daiichi Sankyo’s current portfolio includes CS-1008, for treating malignant neoplasms, which is in Phase II. The company also has Japanese rights to denosumab, or AMG 162, which is licensed from Amgen. In Japan, this agent is currently in preparation for Phase III for osteoporosis, and in Phase III for bone metastases in patients with advanced breast cancer.

“Our acquisition of U3 Pharma is an ideal strategic fit for our oncology portfolio,” said Takashi Shoda, President and CEO of Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. “We currently have three human monoclonal antibodies in development. Additionally, in March, 2008, we announced that we were expanding our joint research venture with another German company, MorphoSys AG, for its advanced Human Combinatorial Antibody Library and its phage display technologies.”

“This transaction with Daiichi Sankyo represents an important and exciting milestone for U3 Pharma,” Ullrich said. “We look forward to working with our Daiichi Sankyo colleagues to advance our discovery pipeline and to collaborate on translating that pipeline into novel cancer therapies.”