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Amira announces spinoffs

by Ben Fidler | Published September 9, 2011 at 1:40 PM

Amira Pharmaceuticals Inc. has spun out two pieces of its business now that it has closed its $475 million sale to Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.

The San Diego biopharmaceutical company completed the BMS deal on Thursday and announced that it has jettisoned two entities, naming them Panmira Pharmaceuticals LLC and FLAP LLC.

Panmira has received a number of assets, including Amira's DP2 receptor antagonists, AM211 and AM461, which have both passed through Phase 1clinical trials. Those compounds, which inhibit the DP2 receptor, are being developed to treat respiratory diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other allergic conditions. Panmira will continue to be backed by Amira's venture capital fund investors: Avalon Ventures, Novo A/S (owned by Bagsvaerd, Denmark-based Novo Nordisk A/S), Prospect Venture Partners and Versant Ventures.

FLAP, meanwhile, will be a non-operating entity with the rights to future milestone payments and royalties from Amira's 2008 licensing deal with GlaxoSmithKline plc for the development of an asthma treatment. GSK bought the drug for $425 million through the 2008 agreement.

BMS closed the Amira purchase on Thursday. Through the transaction, BMS has acquired Amira's fibrosis program, which is led by midstage compound AM152, an orally available lysophosphatidic acid 1, or LPA1 receptor antagonist.

It will also pick up Amira's autotaxin program, which has yet to push a drug through early trials but, BMS noted, may help with treatments of neuropathic pain and cancer metastases.

AM152 has completed Phase 1 clinical trials and is now positioned for Phase 2a studies for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a scarring or thickening of the lungs, and systemic sclerosis, an autoimmune disorder that occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys healthy tissue. The deal fits in with BMS' string of pearls strategy, a plan the drugmaker initiated in 2007 to help boost its pipeline through various transactions.

The Amira purchase is the 13th since BMS adopted the strategy. The most recent transaction came in early July, when BMS signed a partnership with Innate Pharma SA for the development of a cancer antibody in Phase 1 development.

BMS posted about $19.48 billion in net sales in 2010. The company's top-selling drug, blood thinner Plavix ($6.7 billion in 2010 sales), which is co-marketed with Sanofi-Aventis SA, loses patent exclusivity in 2012.

Amira, meanwhile, has received $28 million in VC funding since its inception in 2005, consisting of a $13 million Series A financing in 2006 and a $15 million Series B funding in 2007.

Covington & Burling LLP was BMS' legal counsel.

Cooley LLP provided Amira with legal advice, while J.P. Morgan Securities LLC was the company's financial adviser.

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