International law firm McDermott Will & Emery advises Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated on the planned acquisition of all shares in the Austrian stock corporation APEIRON Biologics AG.
Upon closing of the transaction, Ligand shall acquire all the outstanding shares of APEIRON for $100 million in cash.
Ligand will also pay APEIRON shareholders additional consideration based on future commercial and regulatory events, including up to $28 million if royalties from APERION’s co-developed drug QARZIBA exceed certain pre-determined thresholds by 2030 or 2034, respectively.
The transaction is expected to close in July 2024.
APEIRON is a biopharmaceutical company based in Vienna, Austria.
The company holds the royalty rights to the cancer drug QARZIBA®, which it co-developed. QARZIBA was approved by the European Medicines Agency in 2017 and is now available in more than 35 countries.
Ligand Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company that invests in the clinical development and commercialisation of high value drugs.
Ligand manages one of the largest biopharmaceutical royalty portfolios with more than 100 partnered programmes in commercial and development stages.
The McDermott team is led by partners Uwe Goetker and Sebastian Bonk (Corporate/M&A) and comprised senior counsel Gary Howes (Corporate/M&A), counsel Marcus Fischer (U.S. & International Tax) as well as associates Sebastian Klein, Jan Lorenzen, Hubertus von Bornstaedt, and Nils Ladewig (all Corporate/M&A).
A team of E+H Rechtsanwälte, Vienna, led by partner Alric Ofenheimer (Corporate/M&A) advises on Austrian law.
The further E+H team members were partners Judith Feldner (Antitrust/FDI), Jana Eichmeyer (Employment), Helmut Liebel (IP/IT) and Florian Sagmeister (IP/IT), Attorney Helena Neuner (Corporate/M&A) and associates Rene Renner (Corporate/M&A), Georg Ball (Corporate/M&A), Vinzenz Stockert (Corporate/M&A), Yvonne Handler (Antitrust/FDI), Marcel Neuhauser (Antitrust/FDI) and Adrian Walser (Employment).
