GlaxoSmithKline to buy UK MAbs firm Domantis for L230 million, in cash

Drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline has entered into an agreement to acquire fellow UK-headquartered Domantis, a privately-held developer of next-generation antibody therapies, for a consideration of L230.0 million ($454.0 million), in cash.

The deal, which is subject to clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, is expected to complete in January 2007. Domantis will become a part of GSK's Biopharmaceuticals Center of Excellence for Drug Discovery (CEDD), but will continue to operate from its own laboratories in Cambridge.

The acquisition is a similar move to that of rival AstraZeneca, which took over the remaining 80% of shares it did not already own in antibody specialist Cambridge Antibody Technologies in May (Marketlettter May 22), in a deal which valued the whole of CAT at about L702.0 million. Shares in GSK, the world's second-largest pharmaceutical company, fell 1 pence to 1,340 pence on the London Stock Exchange on the day of the news.