Bioasis Acquires Phase 2 Ready Rare Orphan EGF Assets

Bioasis Technologies, a company that has developed a proprietary platform for delivering therapeutics across the blood-brain barrier, said it has entered an asset purchase agreement with the owners of Norwegian biotech Cresence to acquire two rare orphan epidermal growth factor (EGF) assets that target remyelination to treat neurodegenerative diseases.

Photo: Deborah Rathjen, executive chair of Bioasis

“This transaction is transformational for Bioasis, bringing phase 2 ready assets aligned with our focus in rare disease and orphan drug indications. EGF1-48 comes with a full IND package and clinical experience indicating that it is safe and well tolerated in humans,” said Deborah Rathjen, executive chair of Bioasis. “The molecule has a unique dual mechanism of action, stimulating myelination and downregulating neuroinflammation, thus offering neuroprotective properties that support development in Guillain-Barre syndrome, chronic inflammatory degenerative polyneuropathy, and certain clinical manifestations related to onset and/or progression of multiple sclerosis including optic neuritis and relapses of the disease.”

Members of the Cresence team have entered into consultancy agreements with Bioasis and will be involved in preparations for the phase 2 clinical trials of EGF1-48.

Under the terms of the agreement, Bioasis purchased all right, title, and interest in the intellectual property owned by Cresence related to their EGF platform. The company believes that such EGF assets could be key in treatment of Guillain-Barre syndrome and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, among other indications.

The addition of this key intellectual property provides Bioasis a phase 2 clinical stage ready molecule that is synergistic with Bioasis’ existing technology and therapeutic areas of interest. It is also providing the company with a chance to complete rapid proof of concept clinical trials in multiple rare and orphan indications.

In exchange for this intellectual property, Bioasis has agreed to issue 6.5 million common shares to the sellers upon completion of the transaction as well as up to an additional 6.0 million common shares subject to the achievement of additional milestones as follows: 3.0 million shares are issuable to the sellers upon the company’s initiation of a pivotal clinical trial in the U.S. for the first product and 3.0 million shares are issuable to the sellers upon the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of any Bioasis application for the first product. Milestone payments of $1.0 million each will be made upon attaining the second and third FDA approved indication in neurology for a product. A running royalty of 1 percent of net sales is payable for any product until the expiration of a specified royalty period.

The sellers have agreed that they will not sell any of the common shares issued to them for a period of two years from the closing of the transaction. Thereafter, sales will be subject to certain volume limitations. The transaction and the issuance and listing of the shares issuable to the sellers remains subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.

“We believe that adding our EGF technology to the Bioasis platform will create new synergies allowing rapid development of innovative drugs in neurology,” said Ferdinando Nicoletti, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Cresence. “We expect these synergies will ultimately lead to tailored delivery of our molecules to the central nervous system and possibly broaden the therapeutic areas of their application within immunoinflammatory and degenerative diseases of the central nervous system.”

Author: Rare Daily Staff