Eisai to acquire Morphotek

Eisai (Tokyo:4523; Osaka:4523) will acquire antibody company Morphotek (Exton, Penn.) for $325 million in cash. Morphotek estimates it will return about $25 million in cash to shareholders, bringing the total deal value to about $350 million. The acquisition will add biologics to Eisai's oncology pipeline of small molecules. Morphotek has two cancer antibodies in clinical development: MORAb-003, a humanized IgG1 antibody against glycoprotein-3 (GP-3) in Phase I/II testing for ovarian cancer; and MORAb-009, an IgG1 antibody against GP-9 in Phase I for pancreatic and lung cancer. MORAb-003 has Orphan Drug designation from FDA for ovarian cancer, and MORAb-009 has the designation for pancreatic cancer. Morphotek also has five antibodies in preclinical development for cancer and autoimmune and infectious diseases.

Eisai bolstered its oncology portfolio last September with the acquisition of the cancer product line of Ligand (LGND) (See BioCentury, Sep. 11, 2006). It also has E7389, a synthetic analog of halichondrin B, in Phase III testing to treat breast cancer, plus four compounds in Phase I testing for various cancers. ...