Astellas Pharma has agreed to buy U.S. biotech group Iveric Bio for approximately $5.9 billion, marking the Japanese drugmaker’s largest-ever acquisition and giving it access to the booming eye disease market. age.
Astellas said Monday it would use cash and loans to buy the New Jersey-based company, formerly known as Ophthotech, for $40 per share, representing a 22% premium to the stock price. closing of the American society on Friday.
The deal marks the latest acquisition by Japanese companies – including Kirin beer maker and IT specialist Fujitsu, seeking growth outside their declining home market, even as a weaker yen makes acquisitions more expensive.
Astellas, Japan’s second-largest pharmaceutical company by revenue, has spent more than 1 billion yen ($7.3 billion) on overseas acquisitions and partnerships since 2007, including its $3 billion purchase of US drugmaker Audentes Therapeutics in 2020 and its $3.8 billion takeover of US oncology specialist OSI Pharmaceuticals in 2010.
The latest acquisition will add Iveric’s ACP to Astellas’ portfolio. ACP is a treatment currently being tested for geographic atrophy, an eye disease that affects 1.6 million patients in the United States. Shares of Astellas briefly rose 2% after the deal was announced.
“We hope ACP will become our third pillar” alongside the menopause drug candidate fezolinetant and padcev for the treatment of bladder cancer, said Naoki Okamura, who took over as chief executive in April, at the of an online press conference.
Astellas is on the hunt for new blockbuster drugs with sales of $1 billion and more per year. It is under pressure because its U.S. patent for Xtandi, a popular prostate cancer drug whose sales are shared with Pfizer, expires in 2027. For the current fiscal year to March 2024, Astellas expects sales of 670 billion yen from Xtandi.
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