December 5, 2014
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Editor
Canadian firm Helix BioPharma Corp. announced Friday that it has begun “a comprehensive exploration of growth opportunities,” code that most of the biotech market has taken to mean the company has a shopping list of potential acquisitions and will be buying snap-on targets soon.
Helix said that its encouraging clinical trials of its tumor drug L-DOS47, as well as solid third quarter earnings results, has gotten it thinking about buying new assets to shore up its capital base.
“With the progress we have seen in the development of the DOS47 platform and our lead clinical candidate L-DOS47, we believe that we are now at a stage where it is in the Company’s best interest to identify potential growth opportunities that we can bring into Helix in order to create additional shareholder value,” said Robert Verhagen, president and chief executive, in a statement.
Based in Aurora, Ontario, Helix reported at the end of October that it had completed the closing of two private placements for net proceeds of $10. 2 million. It also received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to initiate an L-DOS47 Phase I, open label, dose escalation study in combination with standard doublet therapy of pemetrexed/carboplatin in patients with Stage IV recurrent or metastatic non-squamous NSCLC.
“Growth opportunities the company may pursue could include, but are not limited to, partnering or other collaboration agreements or the acquisition of some or all of another company’s business or assets,” said Helix in a statement. It said it has retained the advisory services of Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. “to assist in its exploration of these growth opportunities.”
It also issued a firm rebuke to reporters asking for more information, saying tersely that “the company does not intend to disclose developments with respect to this process except as required under applicable securities regulations.”
