Thursday, August 14, 2008

GTC closes $257M deal with Ovation Pharma

By Mass High Tech Staff

GTC Biotherapeutics Inc. has closed a previously announced deal with Illinois-based Ovation Pharmaceuticals Inc., potentially worth up to $257 million, for the development and marketing of GTC’s anticoagulant and anti-inflammatory product ATryn in the United States.

The $257 million deal includes potential payments to GTC (Nasdaq: GTCB) from Ovation for meeting clinical, regulatory and sales milestones. When the deal was initially announced in June, GTC said it will be responsible for production of ATryn and will receive a transfer price on commercial product, a royalty on net sales and payments for product used in clinical trials. According to the deal, GTC will receive $3 million due at closing, as well as $2 million from 2008 regulatory milestone payments and $4 million in 2009 milestone payments. The collaboration includes development and commercialization of GTC’s recombinant form of human antithrombin, a plasma protein, to treat hereditary antithrombin deficiency, or HD.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given the product orphan drug and fast track status, and GTC has applied for a license to use the compound for HD patients undergoing surgical procedures.

Framingham-based GTC, which supplies and develops protein therapies produced in the milk of transgenic animals, reported a 2007 net loss of $36.3 million on revenue of $13.9 million. The biotech firm employs 156 workers.