Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR
Allschwil, Switzerland, November 13, 2023
Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd, Allschwil (SIX: BSLN), a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to meeting the needs of patients with severe bacterial and fungal infections, announced today that it has entered into an asset purchase agreement with Amplyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., an affiliate of Pfizer Inc., to acquire the rights to fosmanogepix, a clinical-stage broad-spectrum antifungal candidate. In addition, Basilea has acquired the rights to a preclinical antifungal compound.
Fosmanogepix is a potential first-in-class antifungal treatment candidate with a novel mechanism of action. It is available in intravenous and oral formulations and has been evaluated for efficacy and safety in a phase 1 / phase 2 program, including three open-label phase 2 studies for the treatment of Candidemia, including Candida auris, and invasive mold infections.1, 2, 3, 4
David Veitch, Chief Executive Officer of Basilea, said: “With fosmanogepix, we are adding a very promising drug candidate to our late-stage clinical antifungal pipeline. It has the potential to become an important treatment option for difficult-to-treat, invasive fungal infections. We plan to initiate the first phase 3 study with fosmanogepix mid-2024. This is a transformative transaction for us, as it provides a strong commercial near-term opportunity beyond our currently marketed anti-infectives Cresemba and Zevtera. We have now executed three transactions over the course of the last few weeks that have significantly strengthened our clinical-stage portfolio, and we continue to see interesting opportunities for further transactions in the future.”
He continued: “Basilea has a successful track record of bringing novel hospital anti-infectives through clinical development to the market and a proven business model of collaborating with other pharmaceutical companies for the commercialization phase of our assets. We are currently in collaboration with Pfizer for the commercialization of our antifungal Cresemba in most of Europe, as well as in China and the Asia-Pacific region, and they now retain the right of first negotiation for commercial rights for fosmanogepix, once phase 3 development is successfully completed.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Basilea will make an upfront payment of USD 37 million and potential commercial milestone payments of up to USD 110 million based on future product sales.
Basilea assumes all rights and obligations from previous agreements, comprising potential development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments of up to USD 396 million, as well as tiered single-digit royalty payments.
Full PR available here