Small Finnish biotech company Biotie (OMXH: BTH1V) made Bloomberg’s front-page as Biotie’s potential Alzheimer medicine SYN120 has been attracting interest. Roche has a one-time option to take back the rights after early-stage data prints later this quarter. Biotie’s investors have been vary of that since they were hoping a similar scenario to take place with the company’s fully human antibody couple years ago but Roche chose not to exercise its option for that compound, which is soon set to enter further clinical studies in orphan indications.
Biotie acquired SYN120 when it merged with Synosia Therapeutics last year. With this the company decided to focus even more on central nervous system drugs and its lead product Selincro (nalmefene), which has been out-licensed to H. Lundbeck A/S (OMX:LUN) has completed an extensive phase 3 program and the results will be presented at the 20th European Congress of Psychiatry (EPA) in Prague, Czech Republic, 3-6 March 2012.
The stock is up 2% on an unusually high volume in Helsinki stock exchange. Veromaa mentioned about the interest for SYN120 last week in a presentation at the 14th Annual BIO CEO & Investor Conference. When interviewed by Bloomberg he was much more direct, saying that “A number of reputable, highly interested pharma companies” have approached Biotie about the drug should Roche decline the option. The Bloomberg article is available here.
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