Intercell AG Strengthens Vaccine Business
Intercell AG, a Vienna based biotechnology company which makes adjuvants for vaccines, bought Iomai yesterday for approximately $189M ($6.60 per share, or a 126% premium over the previous day’s close). Intercell, which has a BLA pending with the FDA for a Japanese encephalitis vaccine, will gain full rights to Iomai’s late stage Travelers’ Diarrhea vaccine which is based on a proprietary needle-free patch delivery vaccine technology and has shown positive interim Phase II efficacy data. The Travelers’ Diarrhea vaccine is expected to enter pivotal Phase III trials in the first half of 2009.
I think this is a good deal for both sides. Iomai’s cash was thinning out ($15.5M remaining to start the year) and needed an influx to remain solvent, while Intercell found a truly synergistic partner for its vaccine franchise. If anything, I would say Intercell got a bargain. Not just in the pipeline, but in the novel, transcutaneous delivery system pioneered by Iomai. Needleless delivery of vaccines could both enhance efficacy of existing vaccines and enable the development of new vaccines that are not able to be delivered by current syringe methods.
(Image from Ciao-chow on flickr under a creative commons license)
