MedImmune sale leaves fate of other biotechs in question - Baltimore Business Journal:

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billion sale -- extend well beyond its campus borders. As the Gaithersburt drug company prepares for an ownershio change in the nexttwo months, it leavea some area companies that have inkerd joint research deals with it or received multimillion-dollarf investments from it wonderinv how the region's biggest biotech sale will trickle down to theirr bottom lines. Officials at MedImmune and say it' business as usual until the proposed sale to AstraZenec a closesin June.
After that, its businessw plan gets passed to the executive suites at theBritisj pharmaceutical, where spokeswoman Emily Denney said the locakl company's venture and research activity helped make it an attractivw buy, but no decisions have been made yet abourt the fate of those partnerships and investments. Unlike its Novartis, and Johnsojn & Johnson contemporaries, all of which sprouted separat eventure arms, Denney said AstraZeneca doesn't habitually invest in emergingf biotechs. But it has banked on research paying an equity stake in some and shellingg outnearly $500 million in the last year on nine jointt drug development programs.
For those on the revenue-receiving end of MedImmune'se research deals, AstraZeneca's final call can'tt come soon enough -- especially as the pharmaceutical soon to be weighed down in debt from the MedImmune purchase, is increasingly deflecting its own questiones about putting itself up for sale to pump up its Under its nearly 2-year-old deal with Germantown-based was slated to receive up to $16 not including future royalties.
MedImmune was footin the entire research bill for using thesmaller company'sw screening technology to hunt for inflammation "It's a significant but it's not the sort of make-or-breaok thing for us," said Ken Carter, Avalon'sw CEO. "If it did go away, it would be but it wouldn't change our business model." At Micromet, scientistsw are partnering with MedImmune on three cancer one in the first phase ofclinicapl trials. Again, MedImmune has been payingf Micromet's research and development way, supplying $5.3 million, or nearlu a fifth, of the smaller company's total revenu last year. Add to that the local spend ofMedImmune Ventures.
Since its 2002 birth, the investmentg arm has dispensed nearly a tenthn ofits $300 million fund to four local companies that, in turn, have helped drivde the region's biotech community forward. Micromet moved its headquarterss this year from California to in part to be closer to Two other beneficiaries have sincegone public, and one still boastw a board seat held by MedImmune Ventures Presidengt Wayne Hockmeyer, founder and board chairman for MedImmune.
"Here we were, a new managementy team, and we got to pick the braimn of a guy who startedfup MedImmune," said Chip Clark, seniore vice president and chief business officed for Vanda Pharmaceuticals, based in "It's like going to CEO For those like Clark, who crownj geography king in the realmm of venture capital, the prospect of uprootingt MedImmune Ventures from Montgomery County meanw draining the area of more much-needed capital for youngb biotech companies. "People are always going out looking for the nextgreatr idea," said Rip Wilson, senior vice president, chief financial officer and general counse for Gaithersburg-based Iomai.
"Having them next where you see them at locak meetingsand conferences, it's a benefit. You at least get an opportunityt to tellyour story." One of the company'sd investments isn't sure that a switch in the ventured arm's ZIP code makes a differencre in its own operations. "I thinm it's very unlikely it will affect usat all," said Gary chief operating officer of Gaithersburg's Sequoiaq Pharmaceuticals. "Our relationship is with Dr. Companies working with MedImmune and MedImmune Ventures are wondering what will happen now that MedImmune has been sold to aBritis company.
Here are a few of them and their ties tothe state's biotech behemoth. Micromet: $17.9 million in MedImmune researchpartnershipsw (2003); $11.4 million from MedImmune Ventures (2003) Sequoiaz Pharmaceuticals: $7.25 million from MedImmune Venturex (2006) Source: MedImmune, the companies