Admedus’s Constellation deal melts into the night

Admedus Immunotherapies, an Australia-based vaccine spinout from University of Queensland part-owned by medical technology company Admedus, is to enter administration after a potential sale to drug developer Constellation Therapeutics collapsed.
Constellation had sought to renegotiate the terms of the transaction with Admedus, which owns shares through its Admedus Investments unit, along with Admedus Immunotherapies’ other shareholders. However no formal approach was forthcoming, leaving the spinout without sufficient capital to sustain its operations.
Founded in 2000 as Coridon and known as Admedus Vaccines until recently, Admedus Immunotherapies had sought to develop vaccines to counter diseases with unmet clinical needs in the global market. It is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.
The unit’s pipeline centred around an immunotherapy program targeting human papillomavirus and herpes simplex virus 2 that aimed to exploit engineered DNA to provoke an immune response against the diseases within the patient’s body.
Admedus Immunotherapies extended the research of Ian Frazer, a clinician scientist and professor at University of Queensland’s faculty of medicine who previously co-invented cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil.
A team led by Frazer was still working with Admedus on the pipeline as of 2016, and it is hoped the research might continue past Admedus Immunotherapies’ restructuring.
Full details of Admedus Immunotherapies’ equity funding could not be ascertained, however UniQuest – University of Queensland’s commercialisation arm – owned a 33.8% stake at the end of 2014, after investing $510,000 that year and $160,000 in 2013, according to an annual financial statement.
Admedus Immunotherapies had obtained $2.6m of capital in 2010 from medical device maker Allied Medical, according to FierceBiotech. It also received an undisclosed sum from Admedus in 2014 that increased the latter’s shareholding to 66.3% from 50.1%.