Biogen has revealed an agreement to acquire Reata Pharmaceuticals for approximately $7.3 billion.
The news follows an announcement by the company last week that it would cut around 1,000 jobs, or 11% of its workforce, to allow investment into its product pipeline.
In its second quarter results, the company said its new ‘Fit for Growth’ programme would generate approximately $1 billion in gross operating expense savings.
President and Chief Executive Officer Christopher Viehbacher said: “In the second quarter, Biogen continued to advance ground-breaking science with the FDA approval of two first-in-class therapies for Alzheimer’s disease and ALS, while also delivering on our base business expectations. Biogen’s business is in transition. Accordingly, we have taken a bottom-up view to shift our resources to the areas of greatest value creation.
“While we will be making significant investments in our newly prioritised pipeline and new product launches, we will also need to invest less in other areas which are no longer growing. With these changes, I believe that Biogen will be better positioned to maximise its growth opportunities going forward.”
Eisai and Biogen’s anti-amyloid beta (Aβ) monoclonal antibody (mAb), Leqembi (lecanemab), recently gained approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the accelerated approval pathway for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in patients with early AD.
The approval was based on data from the Phase III Clarity AD clinical trial, in which reduced clinical decline by 27%. reduced clinical decline on the global cognitive and functional scale, CDR-SB, compared with placebo at 18 months by 27%.
However, according to analytics company Globaldata, Leqembi’s prospects in the Alzheimer’s disease market remain uncertain due to modest gains over current treatments.
The new acquisition will give Biogen rights to Reata’s portfolio of products for neurological diseases, including the FDA-approved Skyclarys (omaveloxolone), the only approved treatment for Friedreich’s ataxia (FA) in the United States.
Diana Spencer, Senior Digital Content Editor, Drug Discovery World
