Bionomics acquires Iliad Chemicals

Australian innovative therapeutics company Bionomics has agreed to acquire the unlisted Melbourne drug discovery company Iliad Chemicals for A$9m in Bionomics scrip, with a potential further $3m milestone payment in Bionomics scrip if a current Iliad development product achieves an agreed clinical or commercial milestone.

Further, Bionomics announced that it had completed a placement, subject to shareholder approval, to fund development programmes in cancer and central nervous system (CNS) disorders.

The acquisition of Iliad will provide Bionomics with additional and more advanced series of potential drug candidates, thereby fast-tracking Bionomics' internal development programmes. Bionomics expects to be able to identify and validate targets, create molecular leads and evaluate them for their ability to target the blood vessels associated with cancer. In addition, Bionomics also expects to be able to both create new molecules and evaluate existing molecules for their potential in treating various neurological diseases.

'We said that we would work towards having two Phase II and five pre-clinical programmes in our portfolio by 2008,' said Bionomics' chairman Dr Peter Jonson. 'We expect the combined Bionomics and Iliad business to be well on the way to achieving that.'

Bionomics' ceo and managing director, Dr Deborah Rathjen, described the combined business as a 'fully integrated drug discovery and development company'. 'We will have comprehensive CNS and cancer drug target and validation platforms, proprietary drug tar-gets, advanced screening capabilities and globally competitive chemistry,' she said.