Dive Brief:
- Brain drug developers Supernus and Individor on Monday announced plans to merge, bringing together two companies specializing in drugs for central nervous system disorders that had combined revenues of $2 billion in 2025.
- Per deal terms, Supernus shareholders will receive 1.54 shares of Individor for every Supernus share they own, and Individor shareholders will receive a one-time $1 billion cash dividend before the deal’s close, financed by a $650 million loan and the combined companies’ cash on hand. After the close, the former Individor shareholders will own around 57% of the combined company and Supernus’ will own around 43%.
- Following the close, the company will be called Supernus, headquartered at Supernus’ Rockville, Maryland offices, and will be headed by its current CEO, Jack Khattar. Individor board member Tony Kingsley will become the combined company’s board chair. The board is expected to consist of eight members evenly split between Individor and Supernus.
Dive Insight:
The transaction will bring under a single company 11 different products for psychiatric, neurologic and addiction conditions, many with steady but sub-blockbuster sales. The biggest seller is Individor’s Sublocade, a long-acting injection that treats opioid-use disorder, and its only drug recording sales growth in 2025 as it shifts away from the oral products that have led to legal problems.
Supernus, meanwhile, experienced a 2% sales decline in 2025 of its wholly owned products, stemming partly from generic competition for some of its drugs like the seizure medicine Oxtellar XR. An expected boost from a new Parkinson’s disease infusion device called Onapgo didn’t materialize on schedule due to a supply constraint that began to ease earlier this year.
The overall revenue growth that Supernus did see in 2025 was purchased with its $561 million acquisition of Sage Therapeutics. That transaction gave Supernus the postpartum depression drug Zurzuvae, which accounted for $53 million in collaboration revenue through a partnership with Biogen, resulting in an overall 9% rise in total revenue, to $719 million.
With the combination, the companies expect to reduce annual costs by about $125 million. They stated the combined company will have projected sales of $2.2 billion and earnings of $888 million, with growth from its current product line expected to continue into the 2030s. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.
“With our combined commercial expertise and enhanced capabilities, we are well positioned to drive significant, durable growth across our diversified portfolio of medicines,” Khattar said in a statement.
Individor shares fell as much as 6% in early trading while Supernus rose as much as 16%.
