Pharnext S.A.
Pharnext Announces Strategic Partnership with Tasly, a Leading Chinese Pharmaceutical Group
DGAP-News: Pharnext S.A. / Key word(s): Alliance/Joint Venture Pharnext Announces Strategic Partnership with Tasly,
Paris, France, 6:45am, May 10, 2017 (CEST) – Pharnext SA (FR00111911287 – ALPHA), a biopharmaceutical company pioneering a new approach to the development of innovative drugs based on the combination and repositioning of known drugs, today announced the signature of a strategic agreement with Tasly Pharmaceutical (Shanghai: 600535), a group ranked amongst China’s top 10 listed pharmaceutical companies. This partnership includes three axes: a financial investment by Tasly in Pharnext; the development of a new pipeline of synergistic combinations through a shared platform; and the license of Pharnext’s lead product for the Chinese market. Pharnext has requested Euronext to resume trading on its stock exchange effective as of Euronext Paris market opening on Wednesday May 10th, 2017 at 9:00am CEST. The above-mentionned major agreement is composed as follows:
“This strategic partnership with Tasly is a major milestone: it confirms the global interest in and the value of our innovative technology platform, PLEOTHERAPY(TM). This partnership will provide access to new markets and new indications for Pharnext technology and products, while also integrating components of modernized traditional Chinese medicine,” said Prof. Daniel Cohen, M.D., Ph.D., Co-Founder and CEO of Pharnext. “We are very pleased and honored to collaborate with Tasly, a visionary company with an impressive history of revolutionizing the use of traditional Chinese medicine in a modernized form.” “We are very pleased to enter into a meaningful collaboration with Pharnext,” said Mr. Yan Kaijing, Chairman of Tasly Pharmaceuticals. “The joint-venture we are creating has the potential to generate a robust pipeline of new therapeutics. This partnership allows us to secure a significant equity interest in Pharnext, as well as the Chinese commercialization rights for their lead asset for Charcot-Marie-Tooth Type 1A disease. We will rely on Tasly’s advantages of its existing biomedical R&D platform and access to the Chinese hospital network; as well as Pharnext’s remarkable drug R&D technological know-how to develop high-potential drug combinations, addressing important unmet medical needs. Based on biological disease network pharmacology, this partnership will exploit the immense potential of modernized Chinese traditional medicine, characterizing in a novel and precise way the mechanism of action of each combination we will develop.“
For more information, visit www.pharnext.com
For more information, visit www.tasly.com
Appendix – Specific Details of Agreements
The investment of EUR20 million by Tasly in Pharnext will be in two forms: EUR5 million in shares, at a price of EUR12.5 per share, and EUR15 million in convertible bonds (CB), paid at a rate of approximately 5%, and automatically converted at a price of EUR13 per share once the price has exceeded this value, on average, for 3 consecutive months. Tasly will also have the opportunity to convert their CB at a price of EUR13 per share at any time if the price is below this value. In the event of non-conversion at the end of 3 years, the CB would be, at the option of Pharnext, either repaid or converted at the market price with a discount of 20%.
For clinical development and commercialization phases, Tasly and Pharnext will benefit from licenses with respect to the following a priori guidelines:
These licenses will be granted to Pharnext and / or Tasly on payment to the JV of a share of the platform research costs, and a term repayment on sales or realized income.
The license to the JV of the drug candidate PXT3003 for Charcot-Marie-Tooth Type 1A disease in the Chinese market will result in an upfront payment by the JV to Pharnext of EUR2 million. The closing of these 3 agreements is expected to take place around the end of June 2017.
10.05.2017 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP – a service of EQS Group AG. |