Lit­tle MEI Phar­ma rock­ets up on $25M cash in­jec­tion, deep-pock­et part­ner for PhI­II AML can­cer study

Can a 4-cylin­der biotech with an un­con­ven­tion­al de­vel­op­ment part­ner help dri­ve a large­ly un­known can­cer drug through Phase III on an in­dus­try track dom­i­nat­ed by world fa­mous For­mu­la One teams? San Diego-based MEI Phar­ma has a $469 mil­lion plan in place to find out, and its shares rock­et­ed up 50% on the news.

This morn­ing, MEI $MEIP is tak­ing the wraps off a de­vel­op­ment deal with Switzer­land’s Helsinn de­signed to shep­herd the HDAC in­hibitor pra­ci­no­s­tat through a piv­otal study. MEI gets $20 mil­lion in near-term cash —$15 mil­lion up front with a $5 mil­lion mile­stone at the start of the Phase III — along with a $5 mil­lion eq­ui­ty in­vest­ment. And there’s $444 mil­lion in mile­stones on the ta­ble for suc­cess, along with roy­al­ties that can be earned from Helsinn’s mar­ket­ing ef­forts.

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