Micromet: Coping with the Fallout When a Partner is Acquired

 
• By Chris Morrison

When Micromet's development partner for lead anti-carcinoma antibody MT201 was bought by Cell Therapeutics in mid-2003, the German biotech was forced to restructure significantly in order to continue funding the program through Phase II trials alone. Micromet isn't the only biotech to see a partnering deal scuppered by M&A. But it and others have shown that these days, a rejected program doesn't mean a dead program. Micromet has since signed a manufacturing partner and its plans to take the program through Phase II alone remain on track.

Consolidation and change throughout the biopharma industry has left many biotech firms without a development partner—or with a very different one. Some, like UCB Celltech , have been faced with an important asset thrown back into their lap; others have had to deal with the change associated with a new partner's needs and priorities.

For Munich-based Micromet Inc. , the issue was money. Micromet relied heavily on funding from the public Italian biotech Novuspharma to bring its lead product through proof-of-concept clinical trials....

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