Medicago Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing highly effective and competitive vaccines based on proprietary manufacturing technologies and Virus-Like Particles (VLPs), this week announced it has entered into an acquisition agreement with Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation (MTPC).
Upon completion of the transaction, Medicago will be jointly owned by MTPC (60%) and PMI (40%), Medicago’s principal shareholder. The transaction represents a total enterprise value of approximately $357 million, including the assumption of existing indebtedness, for 100% of Medicago.
Medicago is a worldwide leader in the development of VLP vaccines using a transient expression system which produces recombinant vaccine antigens in plants. This technology has potential to offer more potent vaccines with speed and cost advantages over competitive technologies, enabling the development of a vaccine for testing in approximately one month after the identification and reception of genetic sequences from a pandemic strain.
This production time frame has the potential to allow vaccination of the population before the first wave of a pandemic, and supply large volumes of vaccine antigens to the world market. The company has received over $19 million in funding from the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) Blue Angel program to support pandemic preparedness.
Read more about the transaction: Medicago announces agreement to be acquired by Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma.
