Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Mintz Levin represents West Coast bio firm in GSK buyout

By Mass High Tech Staff

Boston-based law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo PC handled the legal services for a West Coast biopharmaceuticals company that was just acquired for $57 million.

On Tuesday, Mintz Levin announced that staff from both its San Diego and Boston offices represented the Redwood City, Calif.-based Genelabs Technologies Inc. in the transaction. Genelabs specializes in developing new compounds to treat infectious diseases. The purchaser was a subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline plc that wanted Genelabs to bolster its own work to develop new therapies in treating the hepatitis C virus.
 
The terms of the agreement call for a price of $1.30 per share for Genelabs stock. The Genelabs’ board of directors has recommended that shareholders accept the offer, and the deal is expected to close this December.

According to its website, Genelabs is currently researching compounds that selectively inhibit the replication of the hepatitis C virus. On Nov. 13, Genelabs reported revenue of $300,000 and a net loss of $4.9 million for the third quarter of 2008. In the same quarter the prior year, the company had revenue of $4.6 million and a net loss of $100,000. For the first nine months of 2008, revenue was $7.4 million; the net loss was $9.9 million.

Mintz Levin has offices in the U.S. and the U.K. and offers a wide variety of legal services. The firm recently represented Cambridge-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. during a follow-on financing that raised some $220 million.