Finish line in sight for Pierrel-modoBIOTECH merger
Last Thursday the firms signed a non-binding letter of intent that set the wheels in motion for Pierrel buying up a strong majority of monoBIOTECH’s share capital.
Pierrel hopes to leverage mondoBIOTECH's in silico peptide development platform – which used to improve the efficacy of delivery of drugs for rare diseases – in its ongoing efforts to become a more technology focused contract research organisation (CRO).
Luigi Visani, CEO of Pierrel, told Outsourcing-Pharma that: “Pierrel wants to develop the existing scalable technological platform owned by mondoBIOTECH which matches the information on molecules and biological pathways with the patho-physiological signs and symptoms of diseases.
“In addition we consider the company’s experience in rare and neglected diseases very interesting because it is also one of the focus areas of Pierrel. We hope to advance the current pipeline of medicinal product candidates which are ready-for-licensing and for entering into Phase II clinical trials.”
And though nothing is yet set in stone, Visani told us: “We are working to finalize the deal in a couple of months.”
Saving the day
The deal could come just in time for mondoBIOTECH. In August, the firm reported a loss of €44.3m ($58.2m) in the first half following impairment charges to the tune of €38m ($50m).
The hit meant that - in November - the firm was forced to put drastic restructuring measures in place which included plans to shed more than half its staff in February 2012.
When Outsourcing-Pharma contacted a spokesperson to ask if the plans are still set to go ahead, the firm was unavailable for comment.
In a statement Robert Patterson, mondoBIOTECH chairman, simply said: “Such unique business combination [through the merger] would tremendously help shaping the new paradigm of the drug discovery and development process."
