Amicus acquires MiaMed and its CDKL5 program for up to $90 million

US rare and orphan disease focussed biotech Amicus Therapeutics (Nasdaq: FOLD) has expanded its biologics pipeline with a new preclinical program for cyclin-dependent kinase-like 5 (CDKL5) deficiency, a rare and devastating genetic neurological disease for which there is no currently approved treatment.

Amicus has obtained the rights and related intellectual property to a preclinical CDKL5 program through the acquisition of MiaMed Inc. Under the terms of the acquisition agreement with MiaMed, at closing, Amicus paid around $1.8 million in cash and about $4.7 million in Amicus common stock to the former shareholders of MiaMed. In addition, the former shareholders of MiaMed are eligible to receive up to $18 million on the achievement of clinical and regulatory milestones and up to $65 million upon achievement of commercial milestones. The acquisition of MiaMed does not impact previous full-year 2016 net cash spend guidance of $135 million to $155 million.

The CDKL5 program joins an Amicus pipeline that has several compounds in later stages of development. The news comes just over a month after the company gained European approval for its Fabry drug Galafold (migalastat).