Pfizer has hit the acquisition trail to snap up InnoPharma in a deal that could be worth $360 million.
Privately-held InnoPharma’s portfolio includes 10 generic products approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, with another 19 filed with the agency. In addition, the New Jersey-based company has more than 30 injectable and ophthalmic treatments in development and seeks to develop novel formulations of existing drugs, including hard-to-make products “that require complex manufacturing capabilities or have bio-equivalency challenges, in areas such as cancer and central nervous disorders”.
Under the terms of the agreement, Pfizer is paying $225 million upfront in cash, with an additional $135 million contingent on certain milestones. The deal is expected to close during the third quarter.
John Young, president of the Pfizer Global Established Pharma business, claimed that the deal “is an important milestone as we continue to look for innovative growth opportunities for our sterile injectables portfolio, which will increase to 73 products with this acquisition”.
Preventive haemophilia B success
Meantime, Pfizer unveiled top-line Phase III data showing that once-weekly prophylaxis treatment with its haemophilia B treatment BeneFix (nonacog alfa) significantly reduced annualised bleeding rate (ABR) compared to on-demand treatment with the drug. The mean ABR value was 3.6 for the prophylaxis period, compared to 32.9 for the on-demand treatment, an 89% reduction.
Steven Romano, medicines development head for global innovative pharmaceuticals, at Pfizer said the results are important “because they add to the growing body of clinical evidence showing that prophylaxis treatment has the potential to reduce the number of bleeds in a year, the most critical factor in haemophilia management”.
Benefix was approved on both sides of the Atlantic in 1997.
