Novo Nordisk buys Neose for $43M

  Drugmaker Neose Technologies, Horsham, said it's sold its patents to Novo Nordisk A/S (for fighting hemophilia) and and Bio GeneriX AG (for other treatments) for $43 million in cash. Shareholders will get $15 to $24 million, or 27 to 45 cents a share, the company estimated. The stock peaked at $52 in 2000, back when investors hoped the company wold be able to take its treatments all the way to market by itself.
  Neose's 30 remaining employees haven't been retained, so far, by either buyer, said chief financial officer A. Brian Davis.
  The sales follow a review of "strategic alternatives" including attempts to raise new funding as well as "mergers and acquisitions," CEO George J. Vergis, Ph.D., said in this statement. “We believe that the sale of these assets to our existing collaborative partners maximizes stockholder value and increases the probability that patients will benefit" from Neose drugs including GlycoPEG-GCSF, which treates some of the side effects of cancer chemotherapy, and GlycoPEGylated hemophilia fighters.
  Morgan Lewis lawyers Steven Cohen, Jeffrey Mann, and David Glazer represented Neose.