Epimmune and Anosys announce plans to merge
Epimmune Inc., and Anosys, Inc. announced that they have preliminarily agreed to merge their operations to create a combined company focused on the field of immunotherapeutics and products for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases. The all-stock transaction is subject to the parties entering into a definitive merger agreement, approval by the shareholders of both companies, obtaining commitments for capital resources to fund the combined company's operations and various other conditions that must be satisfied prior to closing the merger. Epimmune also announced that it had withdrawn its S-1 registration statement for the sale of 7,250,000 shares of its common stock which had been previously filed on October 24, 2002 and amended on November 6, 2002. "By combining our epitope technology with Anosys' exosome delivery technology we will create a company with significant expertise and broad intellectual property around activating antigen-specific immune responses, especially in the area of cancer vaccines," said Dr. Emile Loria, president and CEO of Epimmune. "The combined company will have an expanded array of product-focused programs with ongoing Phase I/II clinical trials for therapeutic vaccines in HIV, lung and colorectal cancer and clearance to begin Phase II therapeutic vaccine trials in lung cancer and melanoma. In addition to these internal development programs, we will have several partnered and sponsored programs. The combined company will also have a premier group of stockholders including Aventis, BankInvest, Genencor International, Kirin, Schroder Ventures Life Sciences/International Biotechnology Trust and the State of Wisconsin Investment Board."
"This planned merger will take advantage of the strong synergies between Epimmune and Anosys and will be a logical extension of our earlier licensing arrangement," said Jean-Bernard LePecq, Ph.D., CEO of Anosys. "We believe this merger will also provide us with the critical mass that is required in the biotech industry today."
The newly formed entity will be headquartered in San Diego with additional manufacturing facilities in Menlo Park, California and Evry, France.
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