Transactions

Ferghana is pro-active in the initiation, and even the actual creation, of transactions as well as in their assessment and effective execution. In order to maximize the speed, certainty and quantum of a transaction, Ferghana deploys cross-functional teams staffed by people from its multiple locations.

Select Transactions

We deliver high quality, senior level advice to the Life Sciences Sector
for value-added Corporate Partnering, M&A (acquisitions and divestments) and Financing Transactions. Ferghana has selected a few representative transactions and provided a short case study to illustrate the diversity of our experience.

Acquisition

In August 2009, Ferghana served as the sole advisor to Cephalon (Frazer, PA) on the acquisition of Arana Therapeutics (Sydney, Australia). Cephalon acquired Arana in order to advance its inflammatory disease and oncology pipeline. The transaction catalyzed Cephalon’s entrance into the biologics space.

Cephalon(now part of Teva) was a global biopharmaceutical company engaged in discovery, development and commercialization of unique therapeutic products. The company focused on four main therapeutic areas: central nervous system, inflammatory diseases, pain and oncology.

The Arana acquisition provided Cephalon with an established protein engineering platform to transform proteins, including antibodies, into potent drug candidates. ART621, a Phase II treatment for sciatica/RA, and the lead biologic in Arana’s portfolio, was the first domain antibody to enter the clinic targeting TNF-alpha/RA.

View All Transactions

Partnering

AFT Pharmaceuticals (Auckland, New Zealand) is a specialty pharmaceutical company with activities in generic, prescription and OTC markets. The Company has several patented, novel products that it sells in its Home Markets and that it licenses to leading local and regional biopharma centered companies across the world. Ferghana Partners has advised AFT on various partnering deals for Maxigesic®, a fixed dose combination of paracetamol and ibuprofen for use in an OTC or prescription market. These deals have catalyzed the Company’s commercial expansion into 42 countries to date, with more to come.

AFT has an extensive, growing development portfolio of patented OTC and prescription drugs and Orphan Drug Products, in addition to a unique drug delivery device for intranasal delivery of therapeutic agents. Maxigesic® provides significantly more effective pain relief, without the use of codeine, through a proprietary combination of Paracetamol and Ibuprofen.

Ferghana Partners has aided AFT Pharmaceuticals in global expansion through partnering with companies such as Actavis, Angelini, Kern Pharma and Stada. These partnering deals have allowed AFT to access local markets quickly and thoroughly, which include Ibeva, Scandinavia, UK/Ireland, UAE, East/Central Europe, Italy, Turkey etc.

View All Transactions

Partnering

In August 2011, Ferghana advised VitaPath Genetics (Foster City, CA) and originated their partnering transaction with Alere (Waltham, MA). The partnering transaction gave Alere worldwide marketing rights to VitaPath’s spina bifida risk assessment assay.

VitaPath Genetics was a California-based company that developed molecular assays to predict disorders that can be prevented or treated safely with vitamin-based therapeutics. VitaPath specializes in rare functional genetic variants that are associated with serious disease, yet can be remediated with minimal risk. VitaPath’s spina bifida assay is able to identify risk factors that allow physicians to adequately treat expectant mothers thereby preventing the disease.

The partnering transaction expanded Alere’s variety of offerings into the spina bifida market, within which they would go on to partner with the Spina Bifida Association to promote awareness and education. VitaPath was simultaneously provided with access to Alere’s and SBA’s global platform to support the successful launch of the assay.

View All Transactions

Divestment

In February 2015, Ferghana advised Signature Diagnostics (Potsdam, Germany) on the Company’s sale to Roche Diagnostics Deutschland (Mannheim, Germany). Roche acquired Signature Diagnostics in an effort to advance translational research to accelerate Roche’s next generation sequencing (NGS) diagnostics.

Signature Diagnostics was a privately held translational oncology and genomics company. Signature collects and curates large blood plasma and tissue biobanks in multiple cancers. The longitudinal plasma samples from these biobanks are used in the development of next generation assays, including Signature’s OncoDetect assay, which can be used to monitor patients with late stage colorectal cancers using circulating cell-free DNA in blood.

Roche believes that Signature’s high value cancer biobanks that include longitudinal plasma samples from multiple cancers in addition to high-quality NGS assays will allow it to accelerate the development of targeted NGS-based screening assays in the future.

View All Transactions

Divestment

In February 2014, Ferghana advised Pulsion Medical Systems (Munich, Germany) in its sale to the Getinge Group(Sweden) which bought it in order to expand its offering of cardiac and other monitoring devices for critically ill patients.

Pulsion was a leading provider of specialty monitoring solutions for critically ill patients: cardiac output measurement(having a proprietary monitor) and a proprietary single use catheter. Pulsion’s hemodynamic monitoring is compatible with most major multi-parameter monitoring solutions. Pulsion also provided contrast agents and devices used to enhance visualization in conjunction with surgical and diagnostic procedures.

Through the acquisition of Pulsion, Getinge was not only able to expand its portfolio of critical care monitoring devices, but was able to increase its geographical reach through Pulsion’s strong European presence. Pulsion’s established sales force also facilitated Getinge’s rollout of its own continuous glucose and lactate monitoring devices.

View All Transactions

Divestment

In June 2011, Ferghana advised Ipsogen S.A. (Marseille, France) on the Company’s sale to Qiagen (Limburg, Netherlands). Qiagen acquired Ipsogen in an effort to strengthen its leadership in the molecular diagnostics field by significantly expanding its profiling and personalized healthcare portfolios.

Ipsogen was a publicly traded French company that developed PCR-based tests for blood cancers. The Company offered over 80 tests that were used routinely worldwide, covering four assay families: BCR-ABL (chronic myeloid leukemia), JAK2 V617F (various myeloproliferative diseases), PML-RARA (promyelocytic leukemia), and a group of products for a range of rare forms of leukemia.

Ipsogen’s competitive portfolio in blood cancer assays, which covered 15 biomarkers, further improved patient profiling and monitoring. Ipsogen’s lead product was the ipsogen JAK2 MutaQuant, a kit that provides reliable and sensitive detection and quantitation of the JAK2 V617F/G1849T mutation in genomic DNA. That product was selected a month later by selected by the MyeloProliferative Disorders Research Consortium to assess the JAK V617F(USA) mutation load in two international multicenter trials supported by the National Cancer Institute and Roche Pharma AG.

View All Transactions

Financing

In October 2012, Ferghana acted as financial advisor to Mirna Therapeutics (Austin, TX) and sole placement agent for its $34.5 million Series C equity financing to advance oncology microRNA pipeline into the clinic. The institutional investment was one of the largest ever for a Texas biotechnology company.

Mirna is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of microRNA (miRNA) therapeutics in cancer. The funding enabled Mirna to advance its lead microRNA-based therapeutic product candidate, MRX34, through human proof of concept studies. Securing the investment positioned Mirna to become the first company in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry to advance any therapeutic agent based on miRNA mimics deeper through the clinical focus on Cancer.

In 2013, MRX34 entered clinical testing, where the product is being studied in a multicenter, open-label Phase 1 clinical trial. The MRX34 Phase 1 clinical study is expected to be completed in late 2015.

View All Transactions

Financing

In May 2014, Ferghana acted as the sole financial advisor to AFT Pharmaceuticals (Auckland, New Zealand) in its financing transaction with Capital Royalty Partners (New York, NY) and Milford Asset Management (Auckland, New Zealand) The $42 million equity/debt financing, which included the first equity investment by Capital Royalty, was used to accelerate AFTs commercial expansion and research and development pipeline.

AFT is a New Zealand-based, specialty pharmaceutical company with activities in generic, prescription and OTC markets. The Company also has several patented, novel products that it sells in its Home Markets and that it licenses to leading local and regional biopharmaceutical companies across the world.

In June 2015, AFT reported its sales grew over 17% over the last financial year. The capital from this financing has not only catalyzed global expansion into 42 various countries to date, but has also facilitated pipeline development, most notably, a unique device for intranasal drug delivery of fast acting drugs.

View All Transactions

Financing

In January 2013, Ferghana acted as financial advisor to Crescendo Bioscience (San Francisco, CA) and sole placement agent for its $28 million Series D equity financing. The investment helped to fund the commercialization of Crescendo’s lead product, Vectra DA, a novel test that assesses disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis patients.

Crescendo Bioscience, now part of Myriad was a molecular diagnostics company that develops quantitative blood tests to improve care for patients with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Crescendo’s lead product, Vectra DA, is the first and only multi-biomarker blood test, integrating concentrations of 12 serum proteins associated with rheumatoid arthritis into a single objective score that supports physicians’ treatment decisions.

Vectra DA, introduced in 2010, received Medicare coverage soon after the funding in 2013. Following the equity placement, in November 2013, Crescendo Biosciences was ranked as the 27th fastest growing company in North America on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 list. The recognition was a result of Vectra DA reaching the milestone of 100,000 completed tests as 25% of rheumatologists routinely ordered the product.

View All Transactions