Staff Writer

In a deal valued at a potential $515 million, German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH said it plans to buy Actimis Pharmaceuticals Inc. if Actimis' asthma drug is shown to work.

The acquisition is a structured buyout, in which BI will acquire a prespecified number of shares in Actimis at each development phase of the experimental asthma drug, until the German firm eventually acquires 100 percent of all outstanding shares of the U.S. biotech.

At signing, BI gained a minority share in Actimis, Peter McWilliams, acting president and CEO of Actimis told BioWorld Today.

BI would own all of the shares when the asthma drug candidate, AP768, enters Phase III, he said, though "termination conditions" could kick in if the drug fails during the development phase.

Currently, AP767, Actimis' lead drug, is in Phase I studies. The compound has been shown to have a more effective mode of action across multiple animal models compared to currently marketed leukotriene receptor antagonists, according to the San Diego-based company.

The compound, which targets the CRTH21 molecule, is designed to modify the course of the disease, McWilliams said.

The hope is that the product candidate will go "way beyond symptom control" of other asthma medications such as bronchodilators and leukotrienes, he said.

Actimis is a privately held biotechnology company that was spun off from Bayer Healthcare AG in November 2004.

BI is responsible for funding the development of Actimis' asthma drug, and for getting it through the regulatory process, McWilliams said. Additional milestone payments could come for any success beyond Phase III, totaling as much as $515 million, he said.

Actimis' drug would fit with BI's existing portfolio of development candidates for respiratory diseases, said Andreas Barner, vice-chairman of the board and head of pharmaceutical research, development and medicine at BI.

"For many decades, Boehringer Ingelheim has been advancing research and development in the respiratory area with new medicines, such as Spiriva, which has significantly improved the treatment of [chronic obstruction pulmonary disease] patients," Barner said in a statement.

Actimis has focused exclusively on small-molecule therapeutics for severe respiratory, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases such as asthma, inflammatory dermatoses, inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

The company's targets are focused on the biology of the chemokine superfamily, small proteins released from a variety of cells under a number of both physiological and pathological conditions.