Oncothyreon to Leverage Alpine's Protocell Technology to
Enable Targeted Delivery of Molecular Therapeutics for Serious
Diseases
Company to Hold Conference Call at 4:30 p.m. EDT Today
SEATTLE, WA, Aug. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ - Oncothyreon Inc.
(NASDAQ: ONTY), a biotechnology company specializing in the
development of innovative therapeutic products for the treatment of
cancer, today announced that it has acquired Alpine Biosciences,
Inc., of Seattle, Washington, a
privately held biotechnology company developing protocells, a
nanoparticle platform technology designed to enable the targeted
delivery of multiple therapeutic agents, including nucleic acids,
proteins, peptides and small molecules. Oncothyreon intends
to utilize the protocell technology to develop new product
candidates for the treatment of cancer and rare diseases, either on
its own or with partners.
"We believe the acquisition of Alpine and its
protocell technology brings to Oncothyreon a delivery platform with
the potential to revolutionize multiple therapeutic fields," said
Robert L. Kirkman, M.D., President
and Chief Executive Officer of Oncothyreon. "The acquisition
is a significant step towards achieving our vision of building a
fully integrated biotechnology company, with the capability of
developing new proprietary product candidates to complement our
strong existing clinical pipeline. As an oncology company, we are
particularly intrigued by potential applications in cancer and
cancer immunotherapy. We also intend to seek partners to
work with us to develop product candidates in other fields,
including gene therapy, siRNA and mRNA therapy, enzyme replacement
and the targeted delivery of toxins."
Jay Venkatesan,
M.D., Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Alpine, will join
Oncothyreon as Executive Vice President and General Manager with
primary responsibility for the protocell development program.
Dr. Venkatesan said, "I am looking forward to joining Oncothyreon
to help transform the treatment of cancer and rare diseases.
I believe Oncothyreon's technical and clinical expertise, as well
as existing infrastructure, will help speed the development of the
protocell technology to rapidly bring products into clinical
development. I also believe in the potential of Oncothyreon's
existing pipeline, including ONT-380 for HER2-positive breast
cancer, and the immunotherapeutic product candidates, tecemotide
and ONT-10." Alpine was founded by Mitchell H. Gold, M.D., in 2012.
Protocells were developed by a multidisciplinary
team of scientists at the University of New
Mexico (UNM), the UNM Cancer Center, and Sandia National
Laboratories. The UNM Cancer Center is one of just 68 premier
cancer centers in the nation recognized by the National Cancer
Institute (NCI) for its scientific excellence, contributions to
cancer research and delivery of innovative treatment to patients in
New Mexico. Sandia National
Laboratories, also located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a Department of
Energy-owned national laboratory with significant expertise in
material science technologies for biotechnology applications.
"We believe that this combination of talent and
resources will accelerate the clinical development of the protocell
technology and will lead to better therapies for currently
intractable diseases," said Lisa
Kuuttila, CEO & Chief Economic Development Officer of
STC.UNM, the technology-transfer and economic-development
organization of UNM, which began collaborating with Alpine
Biosciences on the protocell platform in 2013. "We look
forward to collaborating with Oncothyreon in the future as they
advance this platform."
Upon closing of the transaction, Oncothyreon
issued approximately 9.3 million shares of Oncothyreon common stock
in exchange for all of the outstanding stock of Alpine
Biosciences. The issued shares represent approximately ten
percent of Oncothyreon's fully-diluted common stock on a
post-transaction basis. The shares are subject to certain
resale restrictions. Based on the closing price of Oncothyreon
shares on August 8, 2014, the merger
consideration is valued at approximately $27
million.
About Protocells
The protocell technology is a nanotherapeutic
platform based on a silica core and a supported lipid surface
layer. Protocells are able to encapsulate large quantities of
nucleic acids, proteins, peptides, small molecules, and toxins and
deliver them in a highly-targeted fashion, both to specific cells
and to particular organelles within cells.
Conference Call and Webcast
Oncothyreon will conduct a conference call
today, August 11, 2014 at
4:30 p.m. Eastern time (1:30 p.m. Pacific time) to discuss its
acquisition of Alpine Biosciences, its second quarter 2014
financial results and its pipeline of products in
development. To participate in the call by telephone, please
dial (877) 280-7291 (United
States) or (707) 287-9361 (International). In
addition, the call will be webcast live and can be accessed on the
"Events" page of the "News & Events" section of Oncothyreon's
website at www.oncothyreon.com. An archive of the webcast
will be available after completion of the discussion and will be
posted on Oncothyreon's website.
About Oncothyreon
Oncothyreon is a biotechnology company
specializing in the development of innovative therapeutic products
for the treatment of cancer that have the potential to improve the
lives and outcomes of cancer patients. Oncothyreon's clinical stage
pipeline includes the immunotherapy product candidates tecemotide
and ONT-10, and the only HER-2 small molecule inhibitor in clinical
development, ONT-380. Tecemotide is in the Phase 3 START2
trial for patients with Stage III non-small cell lung cancer, which
is being conducted by Oncothyreon's licensee, Merck KgaA of
Darmstadt, Germany. ONT-10
is currently in a Phase 1 trial in patients with various solid
tumors and is also expected to enter a combination trial with
varlilumab in collaboration with Celldex Therapeutics in patients
with advanced breast or ovarian cancer. ONT-380, which is
being developed in collaboration with Array BioPharma, is currently
in two Phase 1b trials in patients with metastatic breast cancer.
For more information, visit www.oncothyreon.com.
About Alpine
Alpine Biosciences is a biotechnology company
developing protocells, a novel nanotherapeutics platform, for the
treatment of rare diseases and cancer. This approach enables
the targeted delivery of nucleic acids, proteins, and other large
and small molecule payloads, while improving stability of these
payloads and minimizing off-target toxicity and immune
responses. The company is performing preclinical work to
begin a series of IND-enabling studies over the next 12-18 months.
For more information, visit www.alpinebio.com.
Alpine was founded by Mitchell H. Gold, M.D., in 2012. In
conjunction with the acquisition of Alpine by Oncothyreon, the name
Alpine Biosciences and certain related unregistered trademarks and
domain names were assigned to Dr. Gold.
Forward-Looking Statements
In order to provide Oncothyreon's investors
with an understanding of its current results and future prospects,
this release contains statements that are forward-looking. Any
statements contained in this press release that are not statements
of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements.
Words such as "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects,"
"will," "intends," "potential," "possible" and similar expressions
are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements include Oncothyreon's expectations
regarding potential development of products using protocell
technology acquired in the Alpine Biosciences acquisition and
potential partnerships for expansion of protocell technology into
additional fields.
Forward-looking statements involve risks and
uncertainties related to Oncothyreon's business and the general
economic environment, many of which are beyond its control. These
risks, uncertainties and other factors could cause Oncothyreon's
actual results to differ materially from those projected in
forward-looking statements, including the risks associated with the
costs and expenses of developing product candidates (including
those using protocell technology), the adequacy of financing and
cash, cash equivalents and investments, general economic factors,
achievement of the results it anticipates from preclinical and
clinical trials of product candidates (including those using
protocell technology), the ability to secure partnerships for
development of protocell technology in new fields and the ability
to adequately obtain and protect its intellectual property rights.
Although Oncothyreon believes that the forward-looking statements
contained herein are reasonable, it can give no assurance that its
expectations are correct. All forward-looking statements are
expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.
For a detailed description of Oncothyreon's risks and
uncertainties, you are encouraged to review the documents filed
with the securities regulators in the
United States on EDGAR and in Canada on SEDAR. Oncothyreon does not
undertake any obligation to publicly update its forward-looking
statements based on events or circumstances after the date
hereof.
Additional Information
Additional information relating to Oncothyreon can be found on
EDGAR at www.sec.gov and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
SOURCE Oncothyreon Inc.