[Updated: 4:55 pm PT] ProFibrix, the Netherlands-based biotech company with a Seattle drug development office, has agreed to be acquired by The Medicines Company for $240 million after passing the final stage of clinical trials with a new treatment for surgical bleeding.
Parsippany, NJ-based The Medicines Co. (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MDCO]]) said today it has agreed to pay $90 million to buy ProFibrix, plus another $140 million if the company can hit certain regulatory and sales goals. The agreement was struck back in June, but it depended on ProFibrix passing a review of clinical data from a study called Finish-3, which enrolled more than 700 patients. Medicines Co. said that ProFibrix’s dry powder, called FibroCaps, met all its clinical goals in patients undergoing spine surgery, hepatic resection, soft tissue dissection and vascular surgery.
The drug could generate $300 million in peak annual sales if it’s approved in all major markets, Medicines Co. said in a statement.
ProFibrix is led by CEO Jan Ohrstrom, who was the chief medical officer of ZymoGenetics during a time when that company developed recombinant thrombin (Recothrom) as an alternative for surgical bleeding. Medicines Co. has a growing interest in the surgical bleeding market, as it struck a deal with Bristol-Myers Squibb last December that will enable Medicines Co. to buy the drug during a two-year period. Medicines Co. agreed to pay $115 million last December in upfront collaboration and option fees to get the drug.
“We plan to integrate the ProFibrix team with our existing Recothrom team–expanding our activities in surgery in pursuit of our purpose which is to save lives, alleviate suffering and improve the economic efficiency of leading hospitals worldwide,” said Medicines Co. CEO Clive Meanwell, in a statement.
ProFibrix was founded in 2007, stayed small, and currently has about 25 employees, Ohrstrom told FierceBiotech. ProFibrix’s labs in Leiden, The Netherlands will remain operational, Ohrstrom told the industry news site.
[Update]: “The news of the acquisition is a dream coming true for me and I am now in charge of building the hemostasis business franchise within MDCO, a vision that started during my tenure at Zymo,” Ohrstrom said in an e-mail. “I will get some of my old Zymo employees back and both they and I are cheering. Recothrom and Fibrocaps obviously go hand in hand and we have additional pipeline products in development, so both the MDCO and ProFibrix offices in Seattle will stay very, very busy.”
Ohrstrom added that he plans to stay with Medicines Co. as a member of the senior management team, reporting to Meanwell, the CEO. He said Medicines Co. plans to combine the Recothrom team in Seattle with local employees from ProFibrix.
“We will combine the two offices in Seattle to get more critical mass, probably on Eastlake—and grow them,” Ohrstrom said. “The two offices complement each other very well. ProFibrix is Development and Regulatory whereas MDCO is commercially focused.”
