Immune Therapeutics and Aletheia Therapeutics announced that Immune will acquire Aletheia in an all-stock transaction. Pursuant to completion of a definitive agreement, Immune will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Aletheia in exchange for Immune common stock. In connection with the acquisition, the Aletheia management team will join the leadership of the combined Company as well as selected Board members of Aletheia.
“With this acquisition we will be able to develop a diverse platform of therapies that target multiple critical biological pathways that will be designed for an individual’s cancer,” said Michael Handley, chief executive officer and president, Immune Therapeutics. “The combination of Aletheia’s diverse oncology product pipeline with Immune’s Lodonal™ and MENK product candidates will create an industry leading oncology company.”
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“Following an extensive evaluation and diligence process, the Immune Board of Directors concluded that the acquisition of Aletheia, with a strong platform technology, seasoned leadership team, and compelling clinical development plan, offered an excellent opportunity to create shareholder value for Immune,” stated Dr. Roscoe Moore, the chairman of Immunes Board of Directors. “We believe Aletheia represents an attractive acquisition target for Immune, offering a novel approach to creating precision therapies for cancer patients with unmet medical needs.”
Under the initial terms announced Immune, through a subsidiary, will initiate an offer to acquire all outstanding shares of Aletheia. The closing of the offer will be subject to certain conditions, including completing due diligence, the employment of the Aletheia management team to Immune management team and the assignment of all intellectual property to Immune. Furthermore, Aletheia has signed definitive stock purchase agreement with an investor group for $25 million that should fund before the end of the year. Once the acquisition is complete Aletheia and Immune will be funded with sufficient capital to execute on the product development strategy in 2020. The acquisition is expected to close early in the first quarter of 2020.