Serodus to acquire Phlogo to expand cardiovascular portfolio

Norwegian biopharma company Serodus (Oslo Axess: SER) says that, following approval by an extraordinary general meeting (EGM), it is to merge with Danish peptide specialist Phlogo ApS. Serodus will acquire the Danish firm for 1.30 Norwegian kroner per share, for a total of some 2.6 million kroner ($424, 290), according to a web site notice.

The merger will accelerate Serodus’ commercialization and development strategy with the addition of two first-in-class drug candidates SER130, an IL-4 partial receptor agonist for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and SER140, an IL-1 receptor antagonist for Type 2 diabetes.

Eva Steiness, chief executive of Serodus, commented: "We are delighted that our pipeline will grow through the merger with Phlogo ApS. Phlogo’s peptides SER130 and SER140 come from internationally-recognized researchers at Copenhagen University who have been concentrating on mimicking and inhibiting endogenous inflammatory cascades. SER130 improves our portfolio in Serodus’ core cardiovascular therapeutic drug development field by focusing on the severe tissue damage, which occurs after a heart attack.