April 29, 2022, Woodbury, MN — Kindeva Drug Delivery (“Kindeva”), has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire iPharma Labs, Inc. (“iPharma”) located in San Francisco’s Bay Area. This acquisition will combine iPharma’s deep expertise and track record in inhalation formulation and development of liquid, dry powder, and propellant-based therapies with Kindeva’s global expertise in developing, commercializing, and manufacturing inhaled therapies. The entire team at iPharma will join Kindeva at closing and will continue to operate from their existing location. The transaction is anticipated to close in the first half of 2022 subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
Keith Ung, CEO, and Co-founder of iPharma, noted, “This acquisition represents an outstanding opportunity for the team at iPharma to focus on what we do best, formulating the best product development strategy for delivery to the patient to and through the lungs. We are excited about the potential this presents as we strive to deliver the best and most effective therapies to patients around the globe. As part of Kindeva we’ll be able to bring our customers a more complete product development and manufacturing offering. I am pleased to continue to lead the team here in Union City as the Site Head and R&D Director and look forward to leading efforts at Kindeva to expand our clinical and commercial support for dry powder and nebulized respiratory therapies.”
Kindeva’s history as a leader in inhalation treatment reaches back to developing the world’s first pMDI inhaler in 1956. iPharma’s work in the early stages of drug development offers a unique understanding of DPIs, SMIs, and Nebulizers for small and large molecules including biologics. Together as Kindeva, the combined organization will support customers from early research and development through clinical and commercial manufacturing and launch, bringing inhalation technologies sustainably into the future.
John Patton, Ph.D., Executive Chairman and Co-founder of iPharma, commented, “Everyone at iPharma is excited to join the team at Kindeva. We started iPharma to help our customers find the best product options for their novel therapies and have grown rapidly since 2016. Coming together with Kindeva enables our customers to work with a single organization from early feasibility, through clinical development, and into commercial manufacturing, and do that on a global basis, leveraging Kindeva’s footprint in the U.S. and the U.K. I look forward to joining the team at Kindeva and am excited to launch our Scientific Advisory Board later this year.”
Aaron Mann, CEO of Kindeva Drug Delivery, commented, “We’re very excited about what this combination means for our customers and their patients: a complete portfolio of respiratory delivery expertise all in one global team. Keith’s leadership, and John’s counsel, along with the broader team and Scientific Advisory Board will help Kindeva accelerate our one-stop CRDMO approach: addressing our customers’ desire for a single partner to support from feasibility through to commercialization without lengthy and risky hand-offs. This acquisition also supports Kindeva’s service model approach and commitment to customers to solve the most challenging inhalation drug delivery problems. Ultimately, this acquisition should help get medicines into the hands of patients quickly, safely, and efficiently.”
ArentFox Schiff LLP is acting as outside legal counsel to Kindeva for the transaction, and Morrison & Foerster is acting as outside legal counsel to iPharma for the transaction.
About Kindeva Drug Delivery
Kindeva is a global contract development manufacturing organization focused on drug-device combination products. Kindeva develops and manufactures products across a broad range of complex drug-delivery formats, including autoinjectors, inhalers, transdermal patches, and microneedles. Its service offering spans early-stage feasibility through commercial scale drug product fill-finish, container closure system manufacturing, and drug-device product assembly. Kindeva serves a global client base in the commercial and health security markets from its nine manufacturing and research and development facilities located in the U.S. and U.K. For more information, please visit www.kindevadd.com.
About iPharma
iPharma is an inhalation contract development research organization (CDRO) founded in 2016 by a group of former employees of Inhale/Nektar Therapeutics, where they learned how to formulate a wide variety of therapeutic agents for inhalation delivery with state-of-the-art technologies, including hydrophobic and hydrophilic small molecules, peptides, large proteins (i.e., monoclonal antibodies), controlled-release particles, RNAi, gene delivery constructs, and live viruses. The company is technology agnostic; the goal is to provide clients with the best product options that fit the proposed therapy. The client’s molecule, its chemical and physical properties, along with patient needs and time and cost restraints, will dictate the product.