Drugs giant Novartis AG said Wednesday it has
agreed to
acquire venture capital-backed Protez Pharmaceuticals Inc., including
the rights to a novel antibiotic, for up to $400 million.
Continue reading below
The Basel, Switzerland-based buyer will pay $100 million up-front, and up to $300 million more contingent, among other things, on regulatory approval of experimental antibiotic PZ-601.
BTG said it will receive about $5 million, equating to 5% of the initial $100 million payment, and another $15 million if Novartis pays the additional $300 million.
Novartis said it plans to make the first regulatory submissions in 2012. The deal comes less than five years after Protez was founded with seed funding from BTG plc, a London-based company whose North American office is in West Conshohocken, Pa. In total, Protez has raised about $26 million in funding. Other investors include Birchmere Ventures of Pittsburgh, BioAdvance Ventures LP of Philadelphia, Quaker BioVentures, also of Philadelphia, and S.R. One Ltd. of West Conshohocken. This is just the latest deal for Novartis. See the
full story for more on the drugmaker's recent spate of dealmaking. -
Renee Cordes
