BerGenBio, reeling from the failure of its lead cancer drug, has opted to merge with fellow Norwegian cancer biotech Oncoinvent.
The deal will see Oncoinvent’s shareholders own 75% of the merged company, with BerGenBio’s shareholders owning the remaining 25%. The resulting entity, which will operate under the Oncoinvent brand, will be focused on Oncoinvent’s lead radiopharma asset Radspherin.
BerGenBio, which is based in Bergen, Norway, put its decision to go ahead with the merger in the context of the discontinuation in February of the biotech’s AXL kinase inhibitor bemcentinib. The company blamed a lack of responses in a phase 2 study of the lead candidate in non-small cell lung cancer and said at the time that it would now consider its strategic options—including a potential merger or sale.
“This merger, which is backed by the boards of both companies, is the result of an extensive review that explored a range of strategic options for BerGenBio,” Anders Tullgren, chair of BerGenBio’s board, said in a June 30 postmarket release.
“The merger gives BerGenBio shareholders a part of an exciting company leveraging Norwegian radiopharmaceutical technology, which has already seen encouraging preliminary efficacy data, without safety concerns,” Tullgren added. “We are confident that this is the best option for current BerGenBio shareholders.”
The merger values BerGenBio at 65 million Norwegian kroner ($6.5 million) and Oncoinvent at 195.5 million kroner ($19.4 million).
The deal will provide an additional 45 million kroner ($4.5 million) to fund Oncoinvent's clinical development plan, which is headed up by Radspherin, an alpha-emitting radionuclide radium-224 being tested in peritoneal cancer in patients who have had surgery for colorectal or ovarian cancers.
Radspherin is currently being evaluated in a phase 2 trial across the U.S., UK and Europe with a readout penciled in for the second half of 2026. So far, preliminary efficacy data have been “highly encouraging,” Oncoinvent said in the release.
The plan once the merger is completed is for a fully underwritten rights issue of 130 million kroner ($12.9 million), which should pave a cash runway past that readout and into 2027.
“We are very excited for the time ahead and to continue the execution of our focused strategy to develop Radspherin in ovarian cancer,” Oncoinvent CEO Øystein Soug said in the release.
“We are on track with our randomised phase 2 trial,” Soug added. “Going forward with a strengthened balance sheet, we believe the company will be a transformative force in the radiopharmaceutical therapy field, improving the lives of patients with cancer in the peritoneal cavity.”
Oslo-based Oncoinvent was founded by Øyvind Bruland, M.D., Ph.D., and Roy Larsen, Ph.D., the pioneers behind Xofigo, a prostate cancer radiopharma drug that was acquired by Bayer in 2014 as part of its acquisition of Algeta.