Astellas acquires Ganymed AG and with it IMAB 362 a therapy for gastroesophageal cancer

Astellas Pharma Inc.and Ganymed Pharmaceuticals AG, a biopharmaceutical company located in Mainz, Germany which focuses on the development of antibodies against cancer, announced that Astellas and Ganymed's shareholders have entered into an agreement for Astellas to acquire Ganymed. Under the agreement, Astellas will pay EUR 422 million to acquire 100% of the equity in Ganymed. In addition, Ganymed's shareholders will become eligible to receive up to EUR 860 million in further contingent payments based on progress in the development of IMAB 362, Ganymed's most advanced clinical program. Upon completion of the transaction, Ganymed would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Astellas. Ganymed leading asset is IMAB 362. Recent results of a Phase IIb study (FAST) of IMAB 362 in gastroesophageal cancer patients positive for Claudin18.2 showed that IMAB 362 extended the median progression-free survival (7.9 months vs. 4.8 months, HR 0.47, p=0.0001) and the median overall survival (13.2 months vs. 8.4 months, HR 0.51, p=0.0001) when added to standard chemotherapy. In the subgroup of patients with the highest levels of Claudin18.2, IMAB 362 resulted in near-doubling of overall survival (16.7 months vs. 9.0 months, HR 0.45, p<0.0005). the most frequent adverse effects observed during the study were vomiting nausea and neutropenia.>