Struggling Eleven Bio Scoops Up Canadian Biotech, CEO Steps Down

September 21, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – With a fresh infusion of $30 million from a development deal with Roche , Eleven Biotherapeutics, Inc. struck a $13.5 million deal to acquire Canadian-based cancer drugmaker, Viventia Bio Inc.

Eleven has struggled over the past year due to the failure of two experimental therapies. However, the company is seeing some fruits from its relationship with Roche to develop Eleven’s experimental EBI-031 treatment for eye-related diseases, such as diabetic macular edema and uveitis. The deal is worth up to $270 million for Eleven Biotherapeutics, which has explored numerous avenues to address recent financial issues stemming from two failed drug trials. The first infusion of cash came in August after the company received the go ahead to initiate clinical trials for the drug.

Now, the company will be able to add new arsenals to its pipeline with the Viventia deal. Eleven’s pipeline now includes Viventia’s lead product candidates Vicinium and Proxinium. Vicinium is in a Phase III clinical trial for high grade non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), with topline data expected in the first half of 2018. In a Phase II clinical trial, Vicinium demonstrated a complete response rate of 40 percent at three months with no drug-related serious adverse events observed in the trial. Proxinium is expected to enter Phase II development in early 2017 for the treatment of late-stage squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Proxinium received Orphan Drug Designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency, as well as Fast Track designation from the FDA.

Eleven’s pipeline now also includes Viventia’s earlier stage pipeline of next generation targeted protein therapy (TPT) candidates that are designed and optimized for systemic administration for the potential treatment of a broader spectrum of cancer types.

Under terms of the deal, Eleven purchased all outstanding shares of Viventia in exchange for the issuance of 4,013,431 newly issued shares of Eleven common stock—which translates into nearly 20 percent of the voting power of Eleven, the company said.

Also under the deal, Stephen Hurly, who served as Viventia’s chief executive officer, was tapped to be the new president and chief executive officer of Eleven. Abbie Celniker, Eleven’s former president and CEO, will remain a director of Eleven Biotherapeutics, the company said.

“Our combined company will continue to support Roche as they develop EBI-031, and will benefit from the capital contributed by this partnership, which provides the necessary funding to enable further development of Vicinium and Proxinium,” Celniker said in a statement.

Shares of Eleven has jumped more than 10 percent this morning, trading at $3.71 as of 10:57 a.m.