Arnold & Porter Advises Spirogen Sarl in Its Sale to AstraZeneca

Washington DC, New York, London, October 22, 2013 -- The Washington DC, New York and London offices of Arnold & Porter LLP recently advised Spirogen Sarl on M & A, Finance, IP licensing, employment, and other aspects of its sale to MedImmune – the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca – for $200m in cash and deferred consideration of up to $240m.

Spirogen had been a strategic investment of Auven Therapeutics, a global private equity company focused on accelerated development of breakthrough therapeutic drugs addressing unmet medical needs, in the antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) field that offers both high potency and selective targeting of cancer cells so as to provide the greatest degree of tumor killing while minimizing the toxicity to the patient.

As part of the transaction, MedImmune also entered into a collaboration agreement with ADC Therapeutics, another Auven portfolio company, for two of ADC Therapeutics' ADC programs. MedImmune and Auven are also making an equity investment of $20m each in ADC Therapeutics.

The members of the Arnold & Porter team advising Spirogen and Auven Therapeutics included Washington, DC partner Steve Parker; New York partners Joshua Berick, David Berg, and Cynthia Mann; London partners Jeremy Willcocks and Henry Clinton-Davis; and associates Wasim Quadir, Mohammad Amer, Jonathan Crowley, Kristen Riemenschneider, and Gemma Gibbs.