ARTICLE | Finance
Ebb & Flow
December 21, 2009 8:00 AM UTC
The 2004 merger of Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. to form Astellas Pharma Inc. (Tokyo:4503) has led to big payoffs in the last two weeks for Calixa Therapeutics Inc. and Gloucester Pharmaceuticals Inc., which both were formed around compounds that Astellas chose to out-license.
Calixa was founded in 2007 based on ex-Asian rights to CXA-101, after Astellas decided to drop discovery and early development of antibiotics. The biotech raised a single $30 million venture round and last week agreed to be acquired by Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:CBST) for $92.5 million in cash and up to $310 million in development, regulatory and sales milestones...