BioWorld International Correspondent

PARIS - IDM Pharma Inc. entered into a definitive agreement with Pharmexa A/S for the sale of its infectious disease programs and other assets for $12 million in cash.

For San Diego-based IDM Pharma, which came into being in August through the merger of Immuno-Designed Molecules, of Paris, and Epimmune Inc., of San Diego, the object is to focus its activities on its five clinical-stage anticancer agents, reduce its cash burn rate and strengthen its cash position.

Among the assets to be acquired by Pharmexa, of Copenhagen, Denmark, are the Padre and EIS (Epitope Identification System) technology platforms, and the companies plan to enter license agreements giving IDM continuing rights to use those technologies in its cancer programs.

In addition, Pharmexa will take over IDM's current lease on the former San Diego research and production facility of Epimmune, as well as the 27 employees who work there. In that regard, Pharmexa will supply certain services that IDM requires for the ongoing clinical trials of its EP-2101 therapeutic vaccine for non-small-cell lung cancer. IDM retains all rights to its cancer programs.

The deal is scheduled to close around Dec. 31, subject to the usual closing conditions. IDM Pharma will retain its research and production facility in Irvine, Calif., with a staff of about 30, as well as its original center in Paris, which employs about 70 people. As well as an injection of cash, the deal is expected to reduce IDM's annual burn rate by $3 million, from around $20 million at present.

IDM Chairman and CEO Jean-Loup Romet-Lemonne told BioWorld International that the company was not large enough to develop two families of products and that it needed to concentrate its resources on its most advanced activities, which are its cancer programs.

In particular, he said, it intended to file its lead compound, Junovan, for regulatory approval in both the U.S. and Europe in mid-2006 and needed to start making preparations for the commercialization of the product in 2007. Known as Mepact throughout its clinical development phase, Junovan is a liposomal muramyl tripeptide phosphatidyl ethanolamine-based immune system stimulant designed to promote the destruction of cancer cells by activating macrophages present in the body.

IDM was granted orphan drug status for the product in the treatment of osteosarcoma in the U.S. in 2001 and in the European Union in 2004, and Junovan completed a Phase III trial in that indication in the U.S. earlier this year.

In June, IDM Pharma concluded an exclusive marketing agreement with Cambridge Laboratories Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, for the distribution of Junovan in the United Kingdom and Ireland. As regards mainland Europe and the U.S., however, Romet-Lemonne said IDM "would like to develop its own sales force, but we might decide to focus on the U.S. and look for a distributor in Europe."

With the additional cash in the bank and its reduced burn rate, the company can fund its activities until mid-2007 at least, Romet-Lemonne said, when having a product on the market would make it easier to raise capital.