Singapore, Jul 2, 2009: CombinatoRx, a NASDAQ listed biotechnology major says it will merge with Neuromed Pharmaceuticals, a privately-held Canadian biopharmaceutical company.
A prepared release by CombinatoRx said this merger brings together the product assets and financial resources of both organizations, including potential Exalgo milestones and royalty revenue and Neuromed’s proven drug development expertise, with the CombinatoRx portfolio of product candidates and its unique drug discovery capabilities.
“By combining forces with Neuromed, we can create a sustainable biotechnology company that has significant product assets, unique discovery capabilities and substantial financial resources. In addition, Christopher Gallen and the rest of the Neuromed management team will bring their considerable product development expertise to bear on the CombinatoRx pipeline and discovery platform. Collectively, the Neuromed team have contributed significantly to more than 10 successful NDAs or other major regulatory submissions and they have launched over 10 pharmaceutical products,” said Robert Forrester, Interim President and CEO of CombinatoRx. “Further, this is a unique merger structure, with a contingent valuation element providing downside protection and upside participation for shareholders. This merger with Neuromed will leverage the operational efficiencies created by CombinatoRx’s recent restructuring, including workforce reductions and divestiture of our Singaporesubsidiary, to focus on our core technology, simplification of our balance sheet and reduced cash burn going forward. As a result, we expect to have sufficient cash to continue operations into 2012,” concluded Forrester.
“Through this merger with CombinatoRx, we have the opportunity to build a biopharmaceutical organization with a novel approach to drug discovery and development,” said Christopher Gallen, President and CEO of Neuromed. ”CombinatoRx’s unique discovery approach and the multiple mid- and early-stage product candidates in the CombinatoRxpipeline, combined with Neuromed’s clinical development experience, project management driven culture and ion channel inhibitor programs, will enable the potential creation of new therapeutics. The recent CombinatoRx-Novartis oncology collaboration further recognizes the potential of the CombinatoRx technology by combining the innovative discovery for whichNovartis is well known with the systematic exploration of combination therapy made possible by the CombinatoRx platform.”
| 
Comment on this article
