Roche Buy Anadys Pharmaceuticals for $230 Million
Swiss pharmaceutical company, Roche, is to acquire the USA’s Anadys Pharmaceuticals, a hepatitis C specialist, in a cash agreement worth about $230 million.
The Swiss company is paying $3.70 per share cash, which represents a 256% premium over Anadys’ closing price of $1.04 on Friday (October 14). The San Diego-based group’s board have agreed to tender their shares and advised other stockholders to do the same.
The primary attraction of Anadys lies with ANA598 (setrobuvir), a direct-acting antiviral that is currently being evaluated in a Phase II study in combination with Roche’s hepatitis C standard of care Pegasys (peginterferon alfa) and Copegus (ribavirin). Anadys are also developing ANA773, an oral, small-molecule inducer of endogenous interferons that acts via the toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) pathway in hepatitis C.
Jean-Jacques Garaud, the head of Roche’s pharmaceutical research and early development unit, commented that the acquisition augments the firm’s already strong HCV portfolio. He added that Roche’s focus now is to look at “a powerful combination of therapies that bring us closer to a cure, even without the use of interferon”, mentioning that Anadys’ compounds “provide additional modes of action that could lead to interferon-free treatment regimens without viral resistance”.
Pegasys is a big earner for Roche, with 2011 nine month sales of 1.05 billion francs, and in May this year they teamed up with Merck & Co to sell the latter’s new HCV drug Victrelis (boceprevir) and explore combination treatments for the disease. However, at present Roche is selling more Pegasys in combination with Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ new rival HCV treatment Incivek (telaprevir) than Victrelis combos.
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