Celgene has acquired privately owned biotech Quanticel Pharmaceuticals, which has a focus on cancer drug discovery.
Through the agreement, Celgene will have full access to Quanticel’s proprietary platform for the single-cell genomic analysis of human cancer, alongside Quanticel’s lead programmes that target specific epigenetic modifiers.
It is hoped they will advance Celgene’s pipeline of innovative cancer therapies.
The new acquisition marks the end of a 2011 strategic alliance between the two companies, during which Quanticel industrialised its single-cell platform for analysis of tumour cellular content and applied it to novel target discovery.
Steve Kaldor, CEO at Quanticel, commented: “Celgene made clear from the start that they valued both our technology and out team and this resulted in an extremely collaborative and productive partnership over the past three years.
“We look forward to supporting the continued maturation of our pipeline and platform as a part of the Celgene organisation.”
Celgene will acquire Quanticel for an upfront payment of $100m in cash, while up to an additional $385m in contingent payments may be achieved with research, development and regulatory advances related to Quanticels’s R&D platform.
Multiple drug candidates from Quanticel are expected to enter clinical trials in early 2016.
This month, it was revealed that Celgene spent $45m on a minority stake into Australian stem cell drug manufacturer Mesoblast.