Eleven Biotherapeutics buys Canada's Viventia Bio in all-stock deal

Eleven Biotherapeutics has bought Canada’s Viventia Bio Inc. in an all-stock deal.

Under the agreement, Eleven has purchased Viventia's outstanding capital stock in exchange for Eleven shares representing about 19.9% of the company's voting power.

Eleven said the acquisition creates a Nasdaq-listed company focused on the development of novel therapies based upon antibody fragments genetically fused to cytotoxic proteins, or targeted protein therapeutics (TPTs), as new treatments in areas of oncology with significant unmet need.

The combined company will continue to be named Eleven Biotherapeutics, and Stephen Hurly, formerly Viventia's chief executive officer, was appointed president and chief executive officer of Eleven in connection with the acquisition. Abbie C. Celniker, Eleven's former president and chief executive officer, will remain a director of Eleven Biotherapeutics.

Eleven said its pipeline now includes Viventia's lead product candidates Vicinium and Proxinium. Vicinium is in a Phase 3 clinical trial for high grade non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), with topline data expected in the first half of 2018. To date, it has been evaluated in more than 100 patients. Meanwhile, Proxinium is expected to enter Phase 2 development in early 2017 for the treatment of late-stage squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.

Hurly said: “We are excited to join with Eleven to create a company with extensive experience in engineering and developing novel protein therapeutics for local delivery that we believe may maximise efficacy and reduce toxicity.

“Our TPTs combine specific tumour targeting with a protein based tumour killing payload, and will be developed to serve cancer patients in areas of high unmet need. Together we have a strong board of directors, management team, product pipeline and technology platform, and the capital needed to support the company's development plans into 2018.”

At 1414 BST, Eleven shares were up 16.6% to $3.37.