Astellas Pharma Inc. today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Ogeda SA, a drug discovery company located in Gosselies, Belgium, and Ogeda has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Astellas as of CET May 17, 2017.
Under the share purchase agreement executed between Astellas and Ogeda shareholders, Astellas paid EUR 500 million to acquire 100% of the equity in Ogeda. In addition, Ogeda shareholders will become eligible to receive up to EUR 300 million in further contingent payments based on progress in the development of fezolinetant, Ogeda’s most advanced clinical program for the treatment of menopausal-related vasomotor symptoms.
This transaction expands Astellas’ late stage pipeline and is expected to contribute to its mid-to-long term growth.
Astellas reflected the impact from this closing of transaction in its financial forecasts of the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2018
Source: Astellas
With a first to market advantage, Ferring’s Rebyota has seen early positive adoption from gastroenterologists and infectious disease specialist in the first month post-launch. As part of their Launch Dynamix™: C.diff service, Spherix reports, while new monthly initiations are modest, a majority of physicians trialing Rebyota report high satisfaction.
Global biopharmaceutical firm UCB has entered an early drug discovery collaboration with Aitia. The collaboration is aimed at discovering and validating new drug targets and drug candidates that are linked to clinical endpoints causally in Huntington’s disease, a debilitating genetic disorder.
Foundry Innovation & Research 1—known by its much catchier acronym, FIRE1—announced Wednesday the close of a $25 million financing round. It was led by a pair of new investors in the company: Andera Partners and Novo Holdings, the holding and investment company that serves as the controlling shareholder for Novo Nordisk and Novozymes.
