Paion AG buys CeNeS Pharma for $21.7M

German biotechnology firm Paion AG will acquire CeNeS Pharmaceuticals in a deal that values the UK drugmaker focused on the heart and central nervous system at 13.7 million euros ($21.7 million). CeNeS stockholders will receive 0.3521 new Paion shares for each of their CeNeS shares, which represents a 32% premium on the UK firm's April 9 closing price.

The acquisition, which is anticipated to close at the end of June, is intended to create a substantial international biopharmaceutical company with a pipeline of clinical drug candidates for the treatment of thrombotic diseases and CNS-related interventions in the hospital setting. Paion's lead drug candidate is Desmoteplase, a genetically-engineered version of a blood-clot dissolving protein from the saliva of the vampire bat Desmodus rotundus. But doubts hang over its future after the drug worked no better than placebo in a recent Phase III stroke trial (Marketletter June 11, 2007). CeNeS will help bolster Paion's flagging pipeline. The Cambridge-based firm's lead drug is M6G (morphine-6-glucuronide), which has shown equivalent pain relief to morphine but with less nausea and vomiting.