XTL Biopharmaceuticals has bought a major stake in fellow Israeli drugmaker Proteologics from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.
XTL is forking out 6.5 million shekels (about $1.7 million), or 1.405 shekels per share, a 22% premium. The deal represents all of Teva’s holding in Proteologics, just shy of 31.4%.
Proteologics, which is listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, focuses primarily on discovering inhibitors for specific E3 ubiquitin ligases. The latter are believed to offer novel drug targets for many types of cancer, metabolic disease, viral infections and CNS-related disorders.
It has a six-project cancer alliance in place with GlaxoSmithKline, which also has a stake in Proteologics. Recently, the latter was thought to be close to merging with another Israeli pharmaceutical group Biocancell.
XTL is focused on late-stage clinical development of drugs for the treatment of multiple myeloma, schizophrenia and hepatitis C.
