Israeli pharma firm NeuroDerm sold for $1.1b to Mitsubishi
The buyer, in the largest ever acquisition of an Israeli pharmaceuticals company, is Japan's Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation.
By GALI WEINREB/GLOBESPills medicine medication treatment 300 (R)(photo credit: Srdjan Zivulovic / Reuters)
Israeli pharmaceuticals company NeuroDerm Ltd. (Nasdaq: NDRM) has been sold for $1.1 billion in cash ($39 per share). This is the largest ever acquisition of an Israeli healthcare company, and one of the largest acquisitions of an Israeli company of any kind. The buyer is Japanese company Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation (TSE Code:4508) (MTPC).NeuroDerm is a clinical stage pharmaceutical company developing drug-device combinations for central nervous system (CNS) disorders. The acquisition by MTPC has received unanimous approval by NeuroDerm’s board of directors. The acquisition price represents a premium of 79% percent over the unaffected price on June 9, 2017 of NeuroDerm’s ordinary shares on the Nasdaq Stock Market, and a 17% premium over the closing stock price on July 21, 2017. A special meeting of shareholders to approve the transaction is expected to be held this fall. Assuming typical regulatory and shareholder approval timeframes, NeuroDerm currently anticipates the transaction will close in the fourth quarter of 2017.The CEO of NeuroDerm is Dr. Oded Lieberman. The chairman, and one of the leading investors in the company, is Robert Taub, who founded Omrix and sold it for $4458 million to Johnson & Johnson.NeuroDerm was floated on Nasdaq in November 2014 at a valuation of $164 million after money. Since then it has made further offerings, at rising valuations.“We believe that this transaction will yield important benefits for NeuroDerm’s shareholders and the Parkinson’s disease patients that urgently need new therapies,” Lieberman said. “MTPC has demonstrated development and commercialization expertise in the field of neurology and we are confident that the combination of their resources and the robust data supporting ND0612, our Phase III Parkinson’s disease product candidate, will help make this important new therapy available as broadly and rapidly as possible. The transaction also provides our shareholders with a significant return on their investment in NeuroDerm, reflecting the value that we have created with our pipeline and technologies.”
