MedImmune, MIPS Company, Purchased for $16 Billion

Maryland Industrial Partnerships Program partner MedImmune Inc. accepted a $15.6 billion buyout offer from London-based pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca on April 23, in a cash deal expected to close in the next two months.

Under the deal, AstraZeneca said it will pay $58 per share, a 20 percent premium on Gaithersburg-based MedImmune's $48.01 closing price on Friday, April 20.

MIPS jointly funded six different research projects with MedImmune--including three directly related to the company’s best-selling drug, Synagis--since 1996.

Commercially launched in September 1998, Synagis surpassed $1 billion in sales in 2005.

MedImmune’s Synagis product was the first monoclonal antibody approved for the prevention of an infectious disease, as well as the first such drug to be safely used in children.

Synagis prevents a serious lower respiratory tract disease caused by the respiratory synctial virus (RSV), prominent in the Northern Hemisphere during the winter months. RSV is the most common respiratory infection for infants and children. Approximately 50 percent of all infants are infected with RSV during their first year of life; nearly all children have been infected at least once by the time they reach their second birthday.

MIPS “helped in [the] structural testing of Synagis lots,” said MedImmune scientist Dr. John Hope in a post-project report. “The process for which the MIPS grant assisted in development of is still being used at MedImmune for testing Synagis and related glycoproteins.”

Through MIPS, MedImmune conducted three research projects with the University of Maryland, College Park, two with the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, one with the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and one, reference above by Hope, with Bowie State University.

Starting in 2004, MedImmune has worked with MTECH’s Bioprocess Scale-Up Facility to develop a training series for the company’s entire Synagis production workforce. The training is designed to give MedImmune employees a better understanding of their individual roles, and how they fit into the larger Synagis production process.

Published April 24, 2007