By Sherri Oslick --
Genzyme Corporation of Cambridge, MA has announced that Bioenvision, Inc. (New York, NY) stockholders approved the acquisition of the company by Genzyme for roughly $345 million in cash. The acquisition suffered from a number of bumps in the road, starting with disapproval of the deal by a key stockholder who raised issue with the fact that Genzyme's proposed takeover followed closely behind a share value dilution used to pay for new clinical trials, believing that Genzyme's offer undervalued the company. In the end, Genzyme and Bioenvision had to seek court approval to reopen the original stockholders' vote on the acquisition in order to ensure that all stockholders had the opportunity to vote. The acquisition will be effective on Wednesday, October 24.
Bioenvision is a biopharmaceutical company focused on compounds for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune disease, and infection. Included in Bioenvision's pipeline is clofarabine, a purine nucleoside analog cancer therapeutic. Genzyme initially retained the rights to clofarabine in an exclusive sublicense from Bioenvision. Marketed as Clorar® in the U.S. and Canada, clofarabine was approved by the FDA in December, 2004 for the treatment of relapsed and refractory pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The FDA also granted orphan drug status to clofarabine as well as an additional six month pediatric exclusivity for clofarabine in pediatric ALL.
Bioenvision's product portfolio also includes, among others, Modrenal® (trilostane), a selective steroid receptor marketed in the U.K. for the treatment of post-menopausal advanced breast cancer following relapse to initial hormone therapy, and Suvus® (methylene blue), which yielded positive results in the treatment of hepatitis C viral infection in Phase II trials. Bioenvision's patent portfolio includes at least three published patent applications directed to its methylene blue therapeutic.
For more information, please see:
- Genzyme press release
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