Emergent buying Protein Sciences Corp. in $78M deal

Biopharmaceutical company Emergent BioSolutions Inc. said Tuesday that it would acquire vaccine maker Protein Sciences Corp. in a deal worth up to $78 million.

A key part of the acquisition for Emergent is privately held Protein Science's late-stage flu vaccine candidate FluBlok that could be used for both seasonal and pandemic outbreaks. An application for FluBlok approval was filed with the Food and Drug Administration in April.

The vaccine has FDA fast track status, meaning the agency will review the drug more quickly than normal.

Protein Sciences also has a proprietary manufacturing technology known as Baculovirus Expression Vector System.

Terms of the agreement call for Emergent to pay up to $28 million in cash upfront, plus up to another $30 million based on FluBlok commercialization milestones and sales. Emergent will include a 5-year, $20 million note that can be converted into Emergent common stock at $12.50 a share.

Emergent also kept its full-year 2008 revenue projection of between $185 million and $195 million. The company will update its full-year earnings projection during its second-quarter earnings call in August.