India-Based Sun Pharma To Buy US Cancer Firm Checkpoint Therapeutics: Details

On Sunday, India-based Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited agreed to acquire U.S.-based immunotherapy and targeted oncology company Checkpoint Therapeutics, Inc. CKPT for an upfront cash payment of $4.10/share.

In December, the FDA approved Checkpoint Therapeutics’ Unloxcyt (cosibelimab-ipdl) for metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) or locally advanced cSCC who are not candidates for curative surgery or curative radiation.

Unloxcyt is the first and only programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) blocking antibody to receive FDA marketing approval for this indication.

The recommended commercial dosage of Unloxcyt is 1,200 mg administered as an intravenous infusion over 60 minutes every three weeks.

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Stockholders will receive a non-transferable contingent value right (CVR) of up to an additional $0.70/share in cash if cosibelimab is approved before certain deadlines in the European Union pursuant to the centralized approval procedure or in Germany, France, Italy, Spain or the United Kingdom.

The upfront cash payment of $4.10 per share of common stock represents a premium of approximately 66.0% to Checkpoint’s closing share price on March 7, 2025, the last trading day before the announcement.

In connection with the transaction, Fortress Biotech, Inc. FBIO, Checkpoint’s controlling stockholder, Checkpoint and Sun Pharma have entered into a royalty agreement, under which following the closing of the transaction, Fortress would be entitled to receive royalty payments based on future sales of cosibelimab during a specified term, in lieu of royalty rights that were granted to Fortress in connection with its founding of Checkpoint.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the second calendar quarter of 2025.

For the nine-month period ending September 2024, Checkpoint reported $0.04 million in revenue and a net loss of $27.3 million.

Price Action: CKPT stock is up 64.2% at $4.055 at the last check Monday.

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