Japan’s Astellas to buy Iveric Bio for $5.9bn in US biotech deal
Astellas Pharma agreed to buy US biotech group Iveric Bio for roughly $5.9bn, marking the Japanese drugmaker’s largest-ever acquisition and giving it access to the rapidly expanding market for age-related eye diseases.
Astellas said on Monday that it would use cash and loans to buy the New Jersey-based company, formerly known as Ophthotech, for $40 per share, representing a premium of 22 per cent to the US company’s closing price on Friday.
The latest acquisition will add Iveric’s ACP to Astellas’ portfolio. ACP is a treatment currently in trials for geographic atrophy, an eye disease that affects 1.6mn patients in the US. Shares in Astellas briefly rose 2 per cent following the deal’s announcement.
“We hope that ACP will become our third pillar” alongside menopause drug candidate fezolinetant and bladder cancer treatment padcev, said Naoki Okamura, who took over as chief executive in April, during an online news conference.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Kana Inagaki
