Cytori Therapeutics
(NSDQ:CYTX) said yesterday that it completed its acquisition of San Antonio-based Azaya Therapeutics and its nanoparticle cancer drugs.
In late January, San Diego-based Cytori said it planned to buy Azaya in a stock deal, offering Azaya shareholders $2 million in CTYX stock.
Cytori also said that it paid $2 million upfront for costs associated with Azaya’s new manufacturing facility in San Antonio.
With the purchase, Cytori acquired a pair of experimental cancer drugs, ATI-0918 and ATI-1123, which were designed to deliver chemotherapies more effectively and with fewer side effects than traditional formulations.
ATI-0918 is a generic version of doxorubicin, but Azaya has not yet proven that the drug is bioequivalent in the U.S. Instead, it completed a trial in Europe and said it plans to file for regulatory approval in 2018. The company also said that it hopes to pursue a follow-on study in the U.S. for ATI-0918.
The company’s 2nd drug candidate, ATI-1123, is a nanoparticle-stabilized liposomal formulation of the widely-used chemotherapy, docetaxel. The candidate completed phase I testing in patients with solid tumor cancers.
“This acquisition is a very important step in the development of Cytori,” president & CEO Dr. Marc Hedrick said in prepared remarks. “The acquisition provides Cytori both a near term opportunity to seek regulatory approval in Europe for the acquired ATI-0918 drug candidate, a generic form of nanoparticle encapsulated doxorubicin, with the goal of launching it in Europe as early as 2019, and bolsters Cytori’s early and intermediate stage pipeline with new drug candidates in regenerative medicine and oncology.”
Cytori said it plans to develop nanoparticle-based therapeutics for oncology and regenerative medicine under the name Cytori Nanomedicine.
