Dive Brief:
- Repros Therapeutics Inc. announced quietly Tuesday morning that a subsidiary of Allergan Inc. will acquire the company for 67 cents per share, valuing the company about $26 million.
- Allergan will complete a second-step merger after the initial tender offer in an effort to buy all outstanding shares. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018.
- The biotech’s stock jumped more than 40% on Tuesday morning on the announcement to trade at the offer price of 67 cents. The stock was down nearly 65% year-to-date as of the prior close.
Dive Insight:
Allergan has been trying to bolster its R&D efforts. The company has created six therapeutic focus areas, including eye care, dermatology, central nervous system, gastroenterology, anti-infectives and women’s health.
Women’s health in particular is an area that not many companies in the pharma world focus on, but conditions like uterine fibroids are a high unmet need for a significant portion of the population. Allergan has its own candidate in late-stage development for the condition.
But Repros isn’t the most obvious acquisition target and will likely take some significant work on the part of Allergan to make successful. Although, based on the shares outstanding, the deal will only cost Allergan about $26 million – a small price to pay if it can get Repros’ candidate to market.
The company has been developing both an oral and vaginal version of a drug meant to treat uterine fibroids. The oral version has been on clinical hold from the Food and Drug Administration since August 2009 due to safety concerns about elevated levels of liver enzymes.
The vaginal drug is in Phase 2 and has also shown promise in endometriosis pain, another prominent but undertreated women’s health issue.
A report from Research and Markets notes that there were 186 million cases of endometriosis worldwide in women ages 15 to 49.