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Alcon announces plan to acquire Swiss biotechnology company ESBATech
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BARCELONA — Alcon announced an agreement to acquire Swiss biotechnology firm ESBATech at the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons meeting here.
Alcon will pay ESBATech shareholders $150 million in cash and contingent payments totaling up to $439 million based on future value from research and development benchmarks, according to a press release from Alcon.
With the acquisition, Alcon will secure all rights to ESBATech technology for the treatment of diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema, glaucoma, dry eye and uveitis. Alcon will also gain access to proprietary antibody fragment technology, particularly clinical and preclinical applications associated with inflammatory eye disease, the release said.
All current ESBATech employees will join Alcon when the acquisition is finalized. ESBATech shareholders will retain rights to all non-ophthalmic technology and form a new firm, Delenex Therapeutics.
"Biotechnology offers significant growth opportunities in ophthalmology because it has the potential to deliver therapies with superior efficacy and safety relative to existing approaches," Sabri Markabi, MD, Alcon senior vice president of research and development and chief medical officer, said in the release.
ESBATech, is a clinical-stage biotechnology firm with a proprietary, comprehensive line of single-chain antibody fragment therapeutics for safe and convenient topical and local delivery, the release said.