Johnson Lau, Athenex CEO (AP Images)

Strug­gling biotech sells its API man­u­fac­tur­ing arm to nar­row its fo­cus

Af­ter a stock plunge in 2021 fol­low­ing a key FDA re­jec­tion, can­cer biotech Athenex crashed in­to pen­ny stock ter­ri­to­ry this year and is now look­ing to sell a piece of it­self to make some cash.

The com­pa­ny has agreed to sell off all its eq­ui­ty in­ter­ests in its Chi­na sub­sidiaries, which are pri­mar­i­ly en­gaged in API man­u­fac­tur­ing, to Ti­He Cap­i­tal (Bei­jing).

The es­ti­mat­ed $19 mil­lion deal will see Athenex re­ceive at least 70% of the pro­ceeds at clos­ing, and the pro­ceeds will be used to pay down ex­ist­ing debt and for gen­er­al op­er­a­tions, the com­pa­ny said. How­ev­er, Athenex and Ti­He al­so plan to en­ter in­to a long-term sup­ply agree­ment for the man­u­fac­ture and sup­ply of cer­tain APIs but were mum on the de­tails.

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