NEW YORK—In late August,
Gardant Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced it signed an agreement to be acquired by
Switch Pharma Ltd. The transaction was expected to close on Sept. 30, subject to requisite approvals.
Shares of Switch Pharma Ltd., which is currently in the process of going public in London, will be issued to acquire Gardant Pharmaceuticals. Pursuant to the agreement, the Switch Pharma Ltd. shares issued in the transaction must be trading for at least $1.38 per share when the shares of Switch Pharma Ltd. commence trading publicly in London. Shareholders of Gardant will receive one share of Switch Pharma for every Gardant share owned.
Switch Pharma is a company that is focused on the development and commercialization of proprietary, innovative and differentiated therapeutic drug products, with a core strategy of focusing on finding different applications for known drugs. Utilizing this development focus, the company seeks to reduce the risk, time and cost of new product development as compared to the development of new chemical entities.
Switch reportedly found Gardant Pharmaceuticals attractive as an acquisition target because of its risk-balanced portfolio and the fact that the majority of the portfolio now consists of oncology-focused compounds. The cancer connection is important, as Switch plans to focus on
oncology applications and therapeutics going forward. Of the eight re-purposed therapeutic products that Switch currently is seeking to develop, two are for the oncology marketplace.
Gardant Pharmaceuticals previously announced the spin-off to its shareholders of record on July 31, 2006, of its shares of Genaderm Inc., Avantogen Oncology Inc. and Amilar Pharmaceuticals Inc. Those spin-offs will proceed as planned, subject to receipt of requisite approvals. Gardant previously announced the spin-off of its shares of Accura Pharma PLC to shareholders of record as of April 21, 2006. Gardant has been advised that Accura Pharma PLC anticipates that its common shares will commence trading in London during the week of Sept. 12, 2006.
