After a recent streak of buyouts by some of Big Pharma's serial acquirers, Belgium's UCB is getting in on the action with a Friday acquisition potentially worth more than $1 billion.
Building on its established foothold in epilepsy, UCB has agreed to purchase cell therapy biotech Neurona Therapeutics and its lead candidate NRTX-1001.
The drug, a neuronal cell therapy, is currently being tested in phase I/II clinical trials for drug-resistant mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE), UCB said in the April 17 release announcing the deal.
To acquire Neurona, UCB is parting ways with $650 million in cash and pledging up to $500 million in potential future milestones. The companies expect the deal to close by the end of this quarter.
The agreement fulfills several ambitions for UCB. Besides bolstering the company's decades-long position in epilepsy, the Neurona acquisition "marks a strategic expansion into regenerative medicine and advanced therapies," the company said in the release, and also shows its "commitment to inorganic growth."
As for NRTX-1001, the pluripotent stem cell treatment is given as a single dose into the brain and is designed to introduce cells that produce gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). This approach is intended to "repair and rebalance the overactive neural networks" in patients with mTLE, potentially reducing seizures, according to UCB.
"We believe this therapy has the potential to provide durable targeted repair of the nervous system following a single dose and could represent a major step forward for people living with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy," UCB's chief executive, Jean-Christophe Tellier, said in a statement.
The acquisition draws some similarities to UCB's agreement in 2022 to purchase epilepsy drugmaker Zogenix for up to $1.9 billion, getting its hands on blockbuster hopeful Fintepla in the process. Last year, that drug generated 427 million euros in sales, and it's nearing a potential label expansion into a third epileptic disorder after a positive trial readout.
Biopharma has seen a surge in M&A activity as of late. The second half of March alone logged roughly $30 billion in deal activity, and the action has flowed into April with recent acquisitions from Neurocrine and Eli Lilly.
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