PharmaTelevision - Antisoma Plc acquires Xanthus Pharmaceuticals

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Video title: Antisoma Plc acquires Xanthus Pharmaceuticals

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On 11th June 2008, Antisoma Plc finalized their acquisition of Xanthus Pharmaceuticals. In this interview, Fintan Walton talks to Nicholas Adams, Director of Business Development at Antisoma, and Dr Michael Boss, formally of Xanthus and now General Manager (Autoimmune) at Antisoma.

Nicholas Adams and Michael Boss outline the benefits of the acquisition agreement from the perspective of both companies. They also discuss the products involved and how funding was focused to ensure the future success of Antisoma.

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Origins of Antisoma and its products.

Fintan Walton:

Hello and welcome to PharmaVentures Business Review here live at San Diego in California. On this show I have Nick Adams, who is Business Development Director at Antisoma and Mike Boss, who is Chief Business Officer at Antisoma. And both of you gentlemen are here as members of Antisoma, but a few about a month ago you weren't together as in one company Nick you were obviously with Antisoma, well Mike you were with Xanthus. And we are here to discuss the recent acquisition by Antisoma of Xanthus. So first of all like to ask you Nick the question around the actual origins of Antisoma itself and the type of company it is and the products that it produces currently?

Nicholas Adams:

Okay. Antisoma started as an antibody base company, but really changed in back in 1999 when it decided actually we were gonna be an anti-cancer company so we look at not only the large molecules but also look the small molecule programs as well, so since then we've in licensed what is now ASA404 back in 2001 as well as other small molecule an Aptamer programs, Aptamer program came with the acquisition of Aptamera back in 2005. So we had changed to a as we are an anti-cancer company looking to diversify the portfolio to spread the risk across different products at different stages in development.

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Michael Boss

General Manager (Autoimmune)

Nicholas Adams was appointed Director of Business Development at Antisoma in November 2003, having acted as a Business Development Manager for four years previously. Before joining Antisoma, he held R&D positions at Ciba-Geigy, Eisai Ltd and Cephalon Inc. Nicholas Adams has a BSc in Biology and studied at the College of Law, London. He is a member of the UK Trade Investments Biotech and Pharma Sector's Advisory Group, the Biotechnology Industry Association's Business Development Working Group and is on the organizing committee of the Pharma Licensing Group UK. Michael Boss, Chief Business Officer and Chief Operating Officer at Xanthus Pharmaceuticals since 2002, was appointed General Manager (Autoimmune) at Antisoma in June 2008 following the acquisition of Xanthus by Antisoma. Prior to joining Xanthus, Michael Boss held the positions of Vice President at Elan Pharmaceuticals (2001-2002), Vice President (Operations) at Athena Diagnostic (1991-2001) and Senior Scientist at Celltech Ltd (1982 - 1987). Michael Boss gained his PhD from the University of London in 1979 and his MBA from the London Business School in 1987.

Antisoma

Antisoma is a publicly quoted biotech company specializing in the development of novel drugs for the treatment of cancer. Founded in 1988, its shares are traded on the LSE and it has offices in London and Boston, Massachusetts. Antisoma's business strategy is to acquire promising early-stage drug candidates from academic and commercial institutions around the world and to manage the development of these drugs through preclinical testing and clinical trials. Antisoma have formed several successful partnerships with large companies such as Novartis, Merck Serono and Cancer Research TechnologyUK as a means of taking developed drugs to market. Antisoma recently acquired US-based private oncology company Xanthus Pharmaceuticals, Inc in an all-share deal valued at GBP 26.8 million (USD 52.2 million). Xanthus Pharmaceuticals have developed a portfolio of novel clinical-stage, small-molecule therapeutics candidates for use in the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases. Xanthus was based in Cambridge, Massachusetts with an additional facility in Montreal, Quebec. The company was acquired by Antisoma in June 2008.