Biopharmaceutical Company Affinivax Announces $3.3B Acquisition by GSK
Affinivax, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company which Gunderson Dettmer has represented since its incorporation, announced on May 31st that it signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by GSK, a global healthcare company, for $3.3 billion. The acquisition of Affinivax will enable GSK to gain access to the next-generation 24-valent pneumococcal vaccine candidate in phase II development and the highly innovative, MAPSTM technology. GSK will pay $2.1 billion upfront and up to $1.2 billion in potential development milestones.
In the announcement of the acquisition, CEO of Affinivax Steven Brugger said, “Over the past eight years, we have taken that vision from the initial development of our MAPS™ vaccine platform at Boston Children’s Hospital to a pipeline of novel vaccines with our lead vaccine candidate in late-stage clinical studies. We are proud that GSK has recognized our team’s accomplishments and are confident that GSK is an ideal new home for our MAPS platform and the team behind its success. GSK’s significant capabilities will enable continued advances with MAPS to improve existing vaccines – as is the case with our lead Streptococcus pneumoniae MAPS vaccine program – and develop vaccines that combat novel and resistant infectious diseases for which there are no effective immunization strategies available today.”
The Gunderson deal team was led by Tim Ehrlich and included corporate associates Graham Rogers, Gabriella Stearns and Sandra Lucero, M&A partner Andrew Luh and associates Matt Martinez and Alice Billmire, public companies partner Keith Scherer and associate John Maciejewski, tax/ fund partner Mark Foster and associate Morgan Otway, executive compensation partner Jim Hauser and associate Chris Shin, labor and employment partner Natalie Pierce and associate Jeff Salomon, and tech/IP associates Beatrice Igne-Bianchi, Julie Bateman, Rithika Kulathila, Keon L. Seif-Naraghi, Lydia Carnvale, and Shagun Parekh.