Biotie to acquire neurology and immunology focussed pharmaceutical company elbion GmbH
Biotie Therapies has entered into an agreement to acquire the German pharmaceutical company elbion GmbH. The combination of the two businesses will take place by a share exchange and create a leading European company in the field of discovery and development of therapeutics for central nervous system (addiction, psychotic disorders) and inflammatory diseases (e.g. rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and inflammatory diseseas of the respiratory system), according to the company. elbion GmbH will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Biotie.
"Bringing together the outstanding pharmaceutical development capabilities and strong clinical pipelines of both companies will create a European leader in the CNS and inflammation market," says Mr. Juha Jouhki, the Chairman of Biotie. Mr Luc Philips, the Chairman of elbion NV stated that "this business combination is a unique opportunity to combine complementary programs and capabilities with sufficient financial means to reach key value inflection points".
The current CEO of Biotie Timo Veromaa will continue as the CEO of the new entity. Elbion's CEO, Bernd Kastler will join the Board of Biotie, along with current elbion Board members Ann Hanham and Christoph Schröder. The company will operate out of its two locations in Turku, Finland and Radebeul, Germany.
The transaction is subject to shareholder approval of both companies and is expected to close on 14 November 2008.
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