IN VIVO: Deals Shaping The Medical Industry, May 2013

Grifols SA (hemotherapy, diagnostics, and hospital IV drugs) is acquiring a 60% stake in privately held diagnostics company Progenika Biopharma SA for €37mm ($48mm), half of which was paid in cash and the rest in 885k nonvoting Class B Grifols shares (which are traded on the Spanish Mercado Continuo and Nasdaq). (Mar.)

Grifols and Progenika’s selling shareholders each have three-year call and put options regarding the acquisition of an additional 35% of Progenika. These shares would be purchased at the same price, subject to a 5% increase per year. Thirteen-year-old Progenika offers molecular tests for diagnosing complex genetic disorders and for predicting individual responses to drugs. The company’s products, sold in the US, Europe, and Middle East, incorporate DNA biochips generated by its Sendagene pharmacogenomics platform. Since June 2010, Grifols has had exclusive worldwide marketing rights (outside of Mexico) to Progenika’s BLOODchip, which performs genotyping of blood samples to ensure compatibility and safety of transfusions. BLOODchip can determine all clinically significant blood types including rare blood group variants by analyzing 128 genetic polymorphisms. In 2011, Grifols sublicensed US rights to BLOODchip, plus other immunohematology products, to Novartis Molecular Diagnostics