Isotechnika and Hoffmann-La Roche Enter Drug Development Deal

Edmonton-based Isotechnika Inc., a biotechnical company, and Swiss drug company Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. entered a drug development deal on April 9, 2002. Under terms of the agreement, Isotechnika is to receive up to US$215 million from Hoffmann-La Roche in a global co-development accord covering Isotechnika’s novel drug, ISAtx247, which helps patients fight organ rejection following a transplant. Hoffmann-La Roche will cover 70 per cent of the development costs for ISAtx247, now in phase two clinical trials. In exchange, Hoffmann-La Roche will gain exclusive marketing rights to the product worldwide. The partners have agreed to handle future development of the drug jointly.

Isotechnika was represented in-house by Joseph Koziak, executive vice-president and counsel in Scottsdale, Arizona; and externally by Douglas Goss, Q.C., of Bryan & Company in Edmonton; Lawrence Meyer (antitrust) in Potomac, Maryland; Kathleen Keller-Hobson, Wendy Gross, Sherri Kreisman and Vanessa Grant (special counsel) of Torys LLP in Toronto; and Mary Ann Dillahunty (patents) of Burns Doane in California.

Hoffman-La Roche was represented by in-house counsel Carol Nuechterlein (corporate finance) in Basel, Switzerland; and Robert Silverman, Peter Paciorek and Gerald Bohm (patents) in New Jersey. In Canada, Hoffmann-La Roche was represented by in-house counsel James Willoughby, and external counsel Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP with a team comprised of Grant Sawiak and Charmaine Chung (securities) in Toronto and William Vanveen (competition) and Henry Brown (Investment Canada) in Ottawa.