In its second major deal announcement of the week following news of its proposed acquisition of Memo Therapeutics for in excess of €700m, France based listed biopharma, Ipsen, has agreed to acquire US-based Kartos Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharma, for up to US$1.75bn. Ipsen will pay US$450m, with Kartos shareholders also eligible to receive additional milestone payments of up to US$1.3bn including a significant regulatory approval milestone and sales-based milestones.
The acquisition adds Kartos’ navtemadlin to Ipsen’s pipeline.
“We are excited by the potential of navtemadlin to define a new treatment paradigm for patients with myelofibrosis,” said David Loew, CEO, Ipsen. “Addressing a critical care gap and offering the potential for a new therapeutic option as early as 2028.”
Navtemadlin is an investigational MDM2 inhibitor designed to restore the natural tumour-suppressing function of p53, a critical tumour-suppressor in myelofibrosis. Data show strong therapeutic potential of navtemadlin for intermediate and high-risk TP53 wild-type (wt) myelofibrosis as an add-on treatment for patients with a suboptimal response to standard of care ruxolitinib.
“Navtemadlin has the potential to enhance the existing standard of care through an add-on approach designed to move patients with a suboptimal response into a clinical responder group by optimising their care,” said Srdan Verstovsek, chief medical officer of Kartos Therapeutics. “We believe this innovative treatment paradigm could meaningfully improve outcomes for patients while avoiding unnecessary over-treatment of those already responding well.”
Advisors
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe is legal counsel to Ipsen. Goldman Sachs and PJT Partners are financial advisors to Kartos. DLA Piper (Emilio Ragosa, Michael Patrone, Keith Ranta, Paolo Morante, Christopher Mikson, James McGraw, Arthur Cohn, Jeffrey Scott, Stephan Harris) is serving legal counsel to Kartos.
Kartos was a portfolio company of investors including: SR One Capital Management and OrbiMed
Press release: Ipsen to acquire Kartos Therapeutics, expanding hemato-oncology late-stage pipeline
