Dive Brief:
- Chiesi Group plans to buy KalVista Pharmaceuticals for $1.9 billion to acquire Ekterly, a newly launched pill for a rare swelling disorder called hereditary angioedema.
- KalVista won approval of the medicine, the first oral, “on-demand” treatment for the genetic condition, in July after an initial delay it attributed to “resource constraints” at the Food and Drug Administration. A promising start to Ekterly’s launch followed, with KalVista recording almost $50 million in sales last year.
- Chiesi, a family-owned Italian drugmaker, said the acquisition will strengthen its rare disease unit and expand its commercial infrastructure in the U.S. The purchase will also “meaningfully contribute” to the company’s 2030 revenue target of 6 billion euros, or about $7 billion, Chiesi said Wednesday.
Dive Insight:
The purchase reflects the growing interest among drugmakers in hereditary angioedema, which traditionally has been treated with injections that either counter an attack or are given regularly as a preventive measure. An explosion of research in recent years has focused on giving patients options that work better, cause fewer side effects and offer more convenience.
Ekterly’s approval as an on-demand pill to treat attacks came as the FDA cleared two new injections last year to prevent episodes, CSL Behring’s Andembry and an RNA-targeting medicine called Dawnzera from Ionis Pharmaceuticals. Meanwhile, Pharvaris is hot on the heels of KalVista with its own experimental pill and Intellia Therapeutics will soon seek approval of a potential one-and-done gene editing therapy.
Although the plethora of new options raised questions about how much revenue any one treatment could bring in, Ekterly’s launch impressed analysts. The drug attracted almost 20% of the U.S. patient population through February, and the company now says the on-demand market could top $1.8 billion, Leerink Partners analysts wrote in March.
KalVista shares had jumped about 75% in the six months prior to the news of the acquisition, which values the company at $27 a share. Thought he had a higher price target for the stock, the acquisition is “a very solid outcome,” Stifel analyst Paul Matteis wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday. It secures an exit for investors without concern about coming competition, he said.
Ekterly’s launch “has gone exceedingly well and even surpassed bullish expectations – making [KalVista] a great asset for Chiesi,” Matteis wrote.
The takeover also offers “positive readthroughs” for Pharvaris, RBC Capital Markets analyst Nevin Varghese wrote to clients on Wednesday. It “reflects strong strategic interest in the oral HAE space,” he said. And with KalVista “off the board,” bigger companies may be interested in buying Pharvaris or BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, which has a once-daily preventive capsule for hereditary angioedema, he said.
Chiesi’s bid for KalVista was one of two biotech acquisitions announced Wednesday and the fifth so far this week. It’s yet another sign of an overall acceleration in industry takeovers.
