How it started
Company history
ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was founded in 1991 in Cambridge, Massachusetts by Harvey J. Berger, M.D. ARIAD raised $46 million as its initial financing in 1992, making it the single highest round of funding in the biotechnology industry at that time. ARIAD filed for an initial public offering through NASDAQ in 1994. ARIAD established its European headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The company sells and markets its initial drug, Iclusig, through specialty pharmacies and specialty distributors in the United States. In 2016, ARIAD sold its European business and the distribution of Iclusig to Incyte Corp and now receives royalties and other payments from Incyte based on Iclusig sales in the EU. ARIAD also developed two small-molecule drugs, ridaforolimus and rimiducid, and licensed them to companies with complementary technologies.
In July 2015, the company announced it was due to receive up to $200 million through a royalty financing deal with PDL BioPharma. ARIAD is obligated to repay the $200 mm and a predefined interest, with the note being guaranteed by future sales of ponatinib and in some cases, brigatinib.
On February 21, 2014 ARIAD Pharmaceuticals announced the appointment of Sarissa Capital's Alexander J. Denner, Ph.D. to a two-year term on the company's Board of Directors and became ARIAD's second-largest shareholder. In 2016, ARIAD announced that Denner had become the chairman of the board and the company announced the termination of its shareholder's rights plan.
In 2016, the company was ranked #3 on the Deloitte Fast 500 North America list.
From Wikipedia’s article on ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3