Fenwick & West represented Celenex, a private, clinical stage gene therapy company, in its acquisition by Amicus Therapeutics (Nasdaq: FOLD), a global, patient-centric biotechnology company focused on discovering, developing and delivering novel high-quality medicines for people living with rare metabolic diseases, for approximately $100 million in an upfront cash payment. Pursuant to the deal, Celenex shareholders are also eligible to receive up to approximately $15 million in development milestone payments, approximately $262 million in BLA/MAA submission and approval milestone payments across multiple programs and up to approximately $75 million in tiered sales ($500 million/$750 million) milestone payments.
The acquisition of Celenex will give Amicus worldwide development and commercial rights for ten gene therapy programs developed at The Center for Gene Therapy at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and The Ohio State University. More information about Celenex’s acquisition by Amicus can be obtained from the company announcement.
The Fenwick transaction team included corporate lawyers Ethan Skerry, Eugene Karlik, David Frydman and Elena Moreno Cloutier; intellectual property lawyers Michael Shuster, Stefano Quintini and Amy Manning; executive compensation and employee benefits lawyers Matt Cantor and Hans Andersson; and tax lawyer Will Skinner.