Sofinnova Partners announces the acquisition of Delinia by Celgene Corporation

Paris, France, January 26th. 2017. Sofinnova Partners, a leading European venture capital firm specialized in Life Science, today announced that Celgene has acquired Delinia, a portfolio company Delinia, a biotech company specialized in the treatment of life-threatening autoimmune diseases, to Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG), for up to $775 M including an upfront of $300 million in cash, and additional payments contingent upon achieving certain development, regulatory and commercial milestones related to its lead product DEL-106.

Sofinnova Partners together with Atlas Ventures continuously backed Delinia from seed funding to exit, and until today’s agreement were the two largest shareholders. Delinia develops novel therapeutics that rebalance the immune system to treat serious and life-threatening autoimmune diseases. Its lead compound, DEL-106 selectively upregaulates regulatory T cell (Treg), with the potential to treat immune disorders without broadly suppressing a patient’s immune system. Delinia’s novel protein therapeutic platform is built on a technology created by co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Jeffrey Greve PhD. Delinia’s approach aims to restore healthy immune regulation rather than broadly suppress the immune system. Founded in 2014, Delinia is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts with research operations in San Francisco, California.

Celgene Corporation is an integrated global biopharmaceutical company engaged primarily in the discovery, development and commercialization of innovative therapies for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases through gene and protein regulation.

Henrijette Richter, Partner at Sofinnova Partners and Delina’s Board Member, says: Delinia’s success perfectly illustrates our strategy to find great entrepreneurs and help them build great companies. We are extremely happy with this agreement and with Celgene’s, strong commitment to scientific innovation this is the ideal company to continue further development of DEL-106 with the goal of bringing it to the market and providing improved solutions for millions of patients”.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including the expiration of the applicable waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976. The transaction is anticipated to close in the first quarter of 2017.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

SOFINNOVA PARTNERS
Anne REIN
+33 6 03 35 92 05
anne.rein@strategiesimage.com

About Sofinnova Partners
Sofinnova Partners is an independent venture capital firm based in Paris, France. For more than 40 years, the firm has backed nearly 500 companies at different stages of their development – pure creations, spin-offs, as well as turnaround situations – and worked alongside key entrepreneurs in the Life Sciences industry around the globe. With over €1.3 billion of funds under management, Sofinnova Partners has created market leaders with its experienced team and hands-on approach in building portfolio companies through to exit. For more information, please visit: www.sofinnova.fr

About Delinia, Inc.
Delinia is a biotechnology company developing novel therapeutics for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. Delinia’s lead program is a molecule that potentiates and expands Regulatory T Cells (Tregs), powerful immune cells that are critical to maintaining self-tolerance and immune system homeostasis. Tregs are critically important immune regulatory cells in the pathophysiology of cancer and autoimmune disease. For more information, please visit https://deliniabio.com