BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J.—Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals announced it will acquire privately held Align Pharmaceuticals and Align Holdings of Cary, N.C., to create commercial operations that parallel its existing preclinical and clinical efforts in oncology. The acquisition will bring Cyclacel three marketed products used to manage the symptoms of patients undergoing chemotherapy: Xclair Cream (for radiation dermatitis) and Numoisyn Liquid and Numoisyn Lozenges (for chemo-related dry mouth).
"ALIGN provides an initial commercial base for building a diversified biopharmaceutical business focused on leading-edge therapeutic management of patients with cancer and other serious disorders and enhances the value of our existing oncology and hematology assets," said Spiro Rombotis, Cyclacel president and CEO. "In addition to an experienced team led by Bill Collins, a veteran of GlaxoSmithKline, ALIGN contributes three marketed products that provide an immediate revenue opportunity for supporting our development programs. ALIGN's drugs are a good fit with the emerging indication profile of Cyclacel's investigational drugs, such as sapacitabine, seliciclib, and CYC116."
Cyclacel expects to move the Align operations to New Jersey, where current Align CEO Collins will become general manager of the subsidiary. The deal will see Cyclacel lay out $3.3 million to $3.8 million in cash, as well as deferred stock considerations—not more than 258,840 Cyclacel shares—payable within 12 months of closing and contingent on Align achieving specific operational and financial goals.
