Lundbeck is acquiring Prexton Therapeutics in a deal that could reach up to €905M if the Swiss company’s Parkinson’s treatment proves successful.
Danish pharma Lundbeck has decided to boost its pipeline with the acquisition of Prexton Therapeutics. The deal grants Lundbeck with global rights to foliglurax, a drug to reduce the “off” time periods when Parkinson’s motor complications come back as levodopa medication stops working optimally.
Lundbeck will pay Prexton €100M upfront and up to €805M as the drug meets several development, regulatory and sales milestones. Foliglurax entered a Phase II trial in Parkinson’s last July and data is expected in mid-2018, meaning the first of these milestones could be achieved this same year.
Prexton Therapeutics expects the drug to prevent “off” time by targeting a different set of neurons than levodopa therapy that is not affected by Parkinson’s and therefore has the potential of not losing efficacy over time. “The goal is to treat really severely affected patients, patients for whom there is nothing available,” François Conquet, founder and CEO of Prexton Therapeutics, told us in an interview.
Prexton’s latest funding round was a little over a year ago, raising €29M. According to usual investment standards, the valuation of the company must have been around €80-100M. Meaning the Swiss company and its investors, including Forbion, Seroba, Sunstone, and Ysios Capital and will be making a fast and potentially very lucrative 10-fold return.
The news follows a stream of big European acquisitions that have been closed at the very beginning of 2018. In January, Takeda offered €520 to snap up TiGenix and Sanofi paid a massive €3.9Bn to acquire Ablynx.
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