CuraGen Is Being Sold Celldex Therapeutics

CuraGen Is Being Sold Celldex Therapeutics

CuraGen Is Being Sold

Celldex Therapeutics To Pay $95 Million For 18-Year-Old Company In Branford

CuraGen Corp. a pioneering but unprofitable biotech company, has agreed to sell itself for $95 million, possibly ending the presence in Connecticut for the 18-year-old Branford firm that was once a leading light on the state's technology scene.

Celldex Therapeutics Inc. of Needham, Mass., said Friday that it would acquire CuraGen in a stock transaction that is expected to close in the third quarter and eliminate the CuraGen name.

The deal would strengthen the financial position of the combined company at a time when capital is hard to come by for biotechs.

Formerly known as AVANT Immunotherapeutics, Celldex is developing drugs for cancer, infectious and inflammatory diseases. It will get CuraGen's most advanced drug, CR011, for cancer, other intellectual property, and cash assets of almost $55 million, the companies said.

Initially focused on decoding the human genome and servicing other companies, CuraGen — founded in 1991 — later refashioned itself as a drug developer, but never brought a drug to market.

CuraGen closed Friday at $1.34 a share, up 9 cents, leaving its total market value at $76.6 million. Investors pushed Celldex up 11 percent, to 9.02.

CuraGen was once the biggest biotech firm in Connecticut by employees — more than 250 at the end of 2006 — but had shrunk to about 15.

Even if nothing of CuraGen itself ultimately remains in Connecticut, companies that emerged from it still operate here, a testament to its contribution to the state's bioscience industry, said Paul Pescatello, president of CURE, the state's major bioscience advocacy group.

"A lot of things have come out of it over the years," he said, including 454 Life Sciences, also of Branford and now owned by Roche.

In Friday's statement, CuraGen Chief Executive Dr. Timothy Shannon said his company's board "concluded that this transaction represents the best opportunity for our shareholders" and said the deal "also offers CuraGen investors reduced risk via ownership of a broader portfolio, while still retaining upside potential of CR011 in the combined company."

Shannon will join Celldex's board of directors, but is not expected to hold an operational job, said CuraGen's chief financial officer, Sean Cassidy.

Celldex employed 78 full-time workers as of Feb. 20, according to federal securities filings. For the first quarter of 2009, it reported an operating loss of $7.78 million on total revenues of $3.7 million.