Eli Lilly said on Friday it would acquire gene therapy developer Adverum Biotechnologies in a deal valued at up to $261.7 million, aiming to strengthen its pipeline with an experimental eye disease treatment.<\/p>\n
The deal will give Lilly access to Adverum\u2019s gene therapy candidate, Ixo-vec, and underscores the U.S. drugmaker\u2019s focus on such treatments.<\/p>\n
Lilly has offered $3.56 for each share of Adverum held, totaling about $74.7 million in cash.<\/p>\n
Shareholders may also get up to $8.91 per share in milestone payments, contingent on U.S. approval of Ixo-vec within seven years and achieving more than $1 billion in annual global sales within 10 years of deal close.<\/p>\n
This brings the total potential payout to $12.47 per share. Adverum shares closed at $4.18 on Thursday. They rose 7.7% to $4.5 in early trading.<\/p>\n
Ixo-vec is being studied in a late-stage trial as a one-time eye injection for wet age-related macular degeneration, or wAMD.<\/p>\n
The condition is caused by the growth of abnormal blood vessels at the back of the eye, leading to damage and scarring in the area responsible for central vision.<\/p>\n
\u201cIxo-vec has the potential to transform wAMD treatment from a paradigm of chronic care with repeated intravitreal injections to a convenient one-time therapy,\u201d said Andrew Adams, vice-president of Molecule Discovery at Lilly.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Lilly agreed to acquire gene-editing startup Verve Therapeutics for up to $1.3 billion, eyeing one-time therapies for cardiovascular diseases.<\/p>\n
Lilly expects the Adverum deal to close in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eli Lilly said on Friday it would acquire gene therapy developer Adverum Biotechnologies in a deal valued at up to $261.7 million, aiming to strengthen its pipeline with an experimental eye disease treatment. The deal will give Lilly access to Adverum\u2019s gene therapy candidate, Ixo-vec, and underscores the U.S. drugmaker\u2019s focus on such treatments. Lilly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[722],"class_list":{"0":"post-2323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sitefansalaran-industry-news","8":"tag-eli-lilly-to-buy-gene-therapy-developer-adverum-in-about-262-million-deal"},"yoast_head":"\n