Cipla to pick 14.6% stake in Chase Pharmaceuticals for $1.5 mn says Sachin Karpe

MUMBAI, India - May 12, 2014 - PRLog -- Drug firm CiplaBSE -1.36 % Ltd today will acquire 14.6 per cent stake in US-based Chase Pharmaceuticals Corporation Inc for USD 1.5 million. The investment will be done through Cipla's wholly owned subsidiary Cipla (EU) Ltd, UK. Cipla will make an additional $4.5 million investment in Chase upon achievement of certain milestones says Sachin Karpe.

Company has signed a definitive agreement to invest $1.5 million in Chase Pharmaceuticals Corporation Inc, US, to acquire 14.6 per cent stake in Chase on a fully diluted basis.

Cipla was in the news last week for reportedly rebuffing predatory overtures from Teva, a development Cipla denied in its note to the stock exchanges. Chase is focused on developing novel approaches to improve treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, Cipla said, and it has a unique patented approach focused on improving the efficacy, safety and tolerability of existing Alzheimer medications. In addition to financing Chase, Cipla will collaborate with the company to develop the drug. If successful, Cipla may provide low-cost access to Chase’s lead drug in India and South Africa, where Cipla has championed affordable access to essential and life-saving medications for decades. Through its impact investment unit Cipla New Ventures, the company is investing in the Series B round of financing as part of a syndicate, which also consists of Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners and New Rhein Healthcare LLC, the company said. Cipla New Ventures was set up to chart a course in innovation around biologicals, existing safe drugs, besides leveraging Cipla’s suite of delivery technologies through disruptive innovation around access and affordability says Sachin Karpe.

Cipla Global Managing Director and Chief Executive Subhanu Saxena said that the investment was consistent with Cipla New Ventures’ mission to build more innovation-led business streams for Cipla in the future.

Chase Pharmaceuticals seeks to create and develop medically improved, commercially promising treatments for AD. The Company was founded in 2007 to link emerging technical opportunities in the basic neurosciences to the expanding medical needs of those with neuropsychiatric disease. Since then, the operations have focused on inventing or acquiring product candidates, adding value by advancing them towards global registration, and then licensing-out to commercial partners.  Cipla wanta to bring affordable medicines, where they can identify an unmet patient need, in a way that leverages Cipla’s formidable technology, device and development capabilities says Sachin Karpe

In India, over five million patients suffer from dementia, most of whom are afflicted with Alzheimer’s, a Cipla note said. These numbers are expected to double by 2030.

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