Terumo Buys 80.1 percent of Quirem Medical’s shares to successfully acquire the company for enhancing the technology to treat unresectable liver cancer
Fremont, CA: Terumo Corporation announces the successful completion of the acquisition process of Quirem Medical B.V., a Netherlands-based healthcare startup whose specialties lie in the development of next-gen microspheres for Selective Internal Radiation Therapy (SIRT), a treatment designed for liver tumors. According to the terms of the agreement, Terumo acquired 80.1 percent of the shares of Quirem Medical. This is higher than its current share position of 19.9 percent, making Quirem Medical now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Terumo.
Terumo has agreed to make a one-time, up-front payment of USD 20 million with up to USD 25 million in additional payments depending on the achievements of Quirem Medical by 2030. The transaction will be funded via cash on hand and will not significantly impact the company’s financial projections for the current fiscal year untill March 31, 2021.
Quirem Medical has focussed its resources on developing and manufacturing the QuiremSpheres, the only commercially available microspheres that contain the radioactive isotope Holmium-166. Recently conducted trials have displayed the safety and efficacy of these Holmium microspheres for unresectable liver cancer treatment. For improving the process of patient selection, therapy planning and procedure verification, QuiremSpheres can be utilized to visualize and quantify even the lowest concentrations using Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). This is unique and cannot be carried out with the currently available Yttrium-90 based microspheres.
“The acquisition of Quirem Medical further strengthens our business, expands on our manufacturing and clinical development activities, and complements our comprehensive suite of offerings to support our customers,” said Jim Rushworth, Chief Commercial Officer of the Interventional Systems Division of Terumo.
“We are very excited with the acquisition of Quirem Medical by Terumo as it will further drive the adoption of our unique product offerings worldwide and accelerate our pace of innovation, reaching more patients that will benefit from our technology,” said Jan Sigger, CEO of Quirem Medical.
Terumo has been aggregating its presence in the interventional oncology field, with offerings such as the microcatheter system (Progreat), compressible microspheres for embolization (HydroPearl), drug-eluting microspheres (LifePearl), and biodegradable drug-eluting microspheres (BioPearl). In 2015, Terumo invested in Quirem Medical to become the exclusive global distributor of their technology.
