In a great victory for the reverse merger world and Form 10 shells, as reported in the Reverse Merger Report, Cougar Biotechnology was sold recently to Johnson & Johnson through a tender offer for $1 billion! OK, maybe that doesn’t seem like much compared to Obama’s stimulus package, but it is! Cougar was backed by Paramount Biosciences guru Dr. Lindsay Rosenwald and reverse merged in 2006 with a Form 10 shell provided by affiliates of Richard Rappaport’s WestPark Capital in LA. Disclaimer: affiliates of both Paramount and WestPark are or have been clients. Our firm set up the Form 10 shell that was used and we worked on the merger on behalf of the shell.
Cougar’s stock price has risen 145% since it began trading after the reverse merger. At the time of the merger it was also somewhat historical as a pre-arranged $50 million financing took place contemporaneous with the reverse merger. That was a staggeringly high number at the time (and still frankly is). Rappaport indicated in the article that the Form 10s have use in the right circumstances. Rosenwald said he was frustrated by the lack of an IPO market, and that Cougar could never have completed an IPO at the time.
So yes, I would put this one on the list of most successful reverse mergers, along with the likes of Berkshire Hathaway, Texas Instruments, Occidental Petroleum, Blockbuster Entertainment, Tandy Corp. (Radio Shack), Turner Broadcasting and many others. Well done, guys.
Highly prolific and innovative, Dr. Lindsay Rosenwald is recognized for his many contributions to biomedicine and medical research. These contributions center around the Paramount group of Companies, of which he is the Founder and Chairman. Ranging from Paramount Corporate Development, a company whose purpose is to facilitate and coordinate both drug reseearch and corporate development activities for Paramount’s many portfolio companies, to Paramount BioSciences, a global development and investment firm specializing in the creation, support, and financial backing of new biotechnology companies. Providing backing for Paramount and its portfolio companies is Paramount BioCapital, which is a registered with FINRA as a broker-dealer. Paramount BioCapital generates capital for Paramount’s portfolio companies and has raised about $950 million for these efforts since its inception in 1991.
Graduating from Abington High School in southeastern Pennsylvania in 1973, Dr. Rosenwald then studied Finance at Pennsylvania State University. He graduated Beta Gamma Sigma in 1977 and progressed to Temple University’s School of Medicine. Dr. Rosenwald graduated from Temple in 1983. Over the next three years, he worked on an internship at Abington Medical Hospital while establishing and maintaining his private medical practice. In 1986 he turned his attention to Wall Street and the financial sector. He served as a physician/financial analyst, a rare combination of studies that few at the time could boast.
Dr. Rosenwald founded Paramount BioCapital in 1991, laying the foundation for many staggering revolutions over the next two decades. Dr. Rosenwald founded Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, which recently announced a significant statistical survival benefit in metastatic colon cancer. A portfolio company of Paramount’s developed Arsenic Trioxide, which moved more quickly from development to FDA approval than any other drug. Johnson & Johnson acquired Cougar Biotechnology, another company founded by Dr. Rosenwald, after Cougar developed abiratone acetate. This drug was only in Phase II clinical trials at the time, for the treatment of prostate cancer. Though rare for any drug to be considered before Phase III trials, the compound was so promising that in 2009 Johnson & Johnson Johnson purchased the firm in a “short-term merger” for approximately $1 billion. (Also of note is the fact that abiraterone acetate is been based on a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practice.) Other notable acquisitions include Indevus Pharmaceuticals, which received approval from the Food & Drug Administration for Sanctura, used in the treatment of overactive bladder syndrome. Indevus was then purchased by Endo Pharmaceuticals for approximately $600,000,000 including contingency payments. Myriad Pharmaceuticals acquired Javelin Pharmaceuticals for around $100,000,000; Enzymed Corp., another company founded by Dr. Rosenwald, was bought by Albany Molecular, and Polarx was sold to Cell Therapeutics after the development of Trisinox for acute leukemia. While these activities have provided capital and funding to Paramount and Paramount’s portfolio companies, Dr. Rosenwald extended his reach to medical research in general by forming the Rosenwald Foundation. The Rosenwald Foundation, a nonprofit organization, has provided millions of dollars to many research and medical education institutions. These donations have provided the resources that pioneering scientists and researchers of today need to forge ahead into the landscape of medicine in the future.
With a nearly two-decade-long list of accomplishments, contributions, and achievements, Dr. Lindsay Rosenwald is indeed at the cutting-edge of biotechnology, medicine, and research. By specializing in both finance and medicine, Dr. Rosenwald is placed him in rare and singular position to identify opportunities to broaden the borders of high-tech medicine and support those researchers that pioneer on those frontiers.
Have there been any RMs in the biotech industry in 2012?