Pfizer said it has received U.S. and German antitrust approvals for its $164 million purchase of Coley Pharmaceutical Group and announced separately that it will acquire CovX, a privately held biotherapeutics company, for an undisclosed amount.
Pfizer first announced the acquisition of Coley last month. The publicly held biopharmaceutical company specializes in vaccine adjuvant technology and a new class of immunomodulatory drug candidates designed to fight cancers, autoimmune diseases and allergy and asthma disorders.
Acquiring Coley is part of Pfizer’s strategy to research new vaccines to prevent infectious diseases and treat cancers and other debilitating conditions, Jeffrey Kindler, Pfizer chairman and CEO, said. Areas where the two firms already are cooperating on research include Alzheimer’s disease, asthma, infectious diseases and oncology.
CovX specializes in preclinical oncology and metabolic research and is a developer of a biotherapeutics technology platform that has led to three early-stage compounds — one in diabetes and two in oncology. Pfizer’s acquisition of the firm is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008. — Martin Gidron
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