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Allergan acquires Akarna, plans to acquire Tobira
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Allergan plc announced agreements with two different biopharmaceutical companies — a move it said significantly increases its nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and gastrointestinal research and development capacities.
Allergan’s acquisition of Akarna Therapeutics involves an up-front payment of $50 million; the deal with Tobira Therapeutics is worth up to $1.695 billion.
“Today, NASH is the second most common cause of liver transplant following hep C. ... We expect NASH to become the leading cause of liver transplants and liver cancer by 2030 and the patient numbers are set to nearly double to almost 27 million patients in the United States alone,” Brent Saunders, CEO of Allergan, said in a conference call with reporters and investors. “Having a broad portfolio in this market will enable us at Allergan to potentially address NASH patients across the entire fibrosis spectrum.”
The acquisitions add cenicriviroc (CVC, Tobira), evogliptin (Suganon, Tobira) and AKN-083 (Akarna) — a “highly differentiated, selective FXR agonist which is a strongly validated therapeutic mechanism for the treatment of NASH” according to a press release — to Allergan’s arsenal.
“The combination of our team’s innovation in the NASH space and the infrastructure, development expertise and world-class ability of Allergan to market medicines will enable us to more rapidly develop and commercialize needed medications for patients suffering from NASH and other serious fibrotic diseases around the world,” Laurent Fischer, MD, chief executive officer, Tobira Therapeutics, said in a press release. Allergan anticipates completing the acquisition with Tobira by the end of this year.
“We are excited to be working with Allergan, a company that shares our vision to develop the best possible treatments for NASH,” Raju Mohan, PhD, chief executive officer, Akarna Therapeutics, said in a press release. – by Janel Miller
Disclosure: Saunders is employed by Allergan; Mohan is employed by Akarna; and Fischer is employed by Tobira.