Dive Brief:
- NeuroDerm, a drug company focused on treatments for Parkinson's disease (PD), has accepted a takeover bid from Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. valued at roughly $1.1 billion.
- Announced Monday, the deal has the acquirer paying $39 per share of NeuroDerm, a 17% premium from the target's July 21 closing stock price. NeuroDerm expects the agreement will help push its lead candidate, which supplies PD patients with a continuous dose of the standard of care drugs levodopa and carbidopa, through to market.
- Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma "has demonstrated development and commercialization expertise in the field of neurology and we are confident that the combination of their resources and the robust data supporting ND0612, our Phase III Parkinson’s disease product candidate, will help make this important new therapy available as broadly and rapidly as possible," NeuroDerm said in a July 24 statement.
Dive Insight:
If NeuroDerm's goal is to quickly usher its most advanced candidate to market, it could find worse partners than Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma. The Japan-based drugmaker has proven its merit in the neurological space before, notching various regulatory victories and high-priced transactions.
In May, for example, the Food and Drug Administration approved its drug Radicava (edaravone) as a treatment for the neurodegenerative disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. And less than two years earlier, Biogen snagged MT-1303, the company's sphingosine 1 phosphate receptor regulator that was later named amiselimod, for $60 million upfront plus hundreds of millions in milestones.
"As a first step toward advancing its franchise in the U.S., [Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma] is expected to launch Radicava, an FDA approved treatment option for amytrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in the U.S. market in August 2017," the company said in a July 24 statement.
"Additionally, the acquisition of ND0612 through this transaction is intended to enable [Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma] to achieve its U.S. sales target of 80 billion yen by FY2020, which is part of its Medium-Term Management Plan."
There are two versions of NeuroDerm's most advanced product: ND0612L and ND0612H. The former is for patients with moderate PD whose motor functions aren't adequately addressed with oral levodopa treatment, whereas the latter is for advanced PD patients who don't adequately respond to oral medications. Both versions can be administered through a belt pump, though there's also a patch pump option for ND0612L delivery.
In June, the Israeli biotech presented more complete data from a Phase 2 study of ND0612H showing that PD patients who received 720 mg of levodopa and 90mg of carbidopa at high rates during the day and low rates at night had significant reductions in off-time — periods where medicines aren't working as well and disease symptoms are more pronounced — of 2.8 hours from a baseline of 5.6 hours.
Recently, NeuroDerm revealed that the European Medicines Agency had accepted its Phase 3 design for ND0612.
In order for the deal to complete, it must receive approval from NeuroDerm shareholders. Already, investors in control of about 34% of the target's outstanding ordinary shares have thrown their support behind the takeout. If the transaction goes through, NeuroDerm will operate as a Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma subsidiary.
NeuroDerm shares opened at $38.50 apiece on Monday, a nearly 16% jump from close-of-market Friday.