PanGenetics' NGF Antibody Sale Illustrates Index's Asset-Focused Strategy

The $170 million up-front that Abbott Laboratories Inc. ponied up for PanGenetics BV's Phase I PG110 anti-nerve growth factor antibody would rank as the largest down payment ever for a Phase I project. But even though at first glance the mid-November deal resembles an alliance, it is in fact the acquisition of part of PanGenetics itself, and reveals founding investor Index Ventures' intriguing asset-focused strategy.

PanGenetics, explains chairman and Index partner Francesco De Rubertis, PhD, is not one biotech company, but two single-asset companies under the same roof and management team, and sharing the same 18-person staff. One company is focused on the NGF antibody, licensed in from LayLine Genomics SPA in 2006. [See Deal] The second company centers on PG-102, an anti-CD40 antibody in Phase II for psoriatic arthritis that was developed in the labs of PanGenetics founder Mark de Boer, PhD. Abbott's acquisition of the NGF project—which may in addition to the large up-front include a $20 million milestone, but not royalties or other downstream incentives—creates a clean exit for PanGenetics' investors (none of the cash will go toward development of the CD40 project)