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news.Astellas Pharma, through its indirect wholly owned subsidiary, Berry Merger Sub, has completed the acquisition of Iveric Bio.
Avacincaptad pegol targets C5 protein and slow down GA progression. Credit: Pexels from Pixabay.
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In April this year, Astellas Pharma’s subsidiary agreed to buy 100% of the outstanding shares of Iveric Bio for $40 per share in cash for a total equity value of about $5.9bn.
Following the acquisition, Iveric Bio has now become a subsidiary of Astellas.
Astellas Pharma president and CEO Naoki Okamura said: “We are very pleased to welcome Iveric Bio and its highly experienced professionals in the ophthalmology field, as a member of Astellas.
“By combining the capabilities of Astellas and Iveric Bio, we will potentially contribute to millions of patients around the world who are suffering from ophthalmologic diseases with fear of vision loss.”
This takeover of Iveric Bio will offer a foundation of ophthalmology focused capabilities that includes a wide network of experts in the ophthalmology field, multi-faceted commercial team, established relationships with medical institutions.
Moreover, with the acquired capabilities, Astellas will be able to speed up pre-clinical and clinical development and commercialisation activities to contribute to the goals of one of its five primary focus areas, ‘Blindness & Regeneration’.
Iveric Bio president Pravin Dugel said: “We believe that along with our colleagues at Astellas, we are well-positioned to become the leader in the development and commercialization of differentiated treatments for retinal diseases.
“We are excited about the opportunities that are before us as both companies combine existing strengths and prepare for the potential approval and launch of Avacincaptad Pegol for the treatment of Geographic Atrophy (GA) secondary to Age-Related Macular Degeneration, a devasting disease that leads to irreversible blindness.”
Avacincaptad pegol decreases activity of the complement system that causes degeneration of retinal cells. It targets C5 protein and slows down GA progression.
