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Biogen is latest with a gene-therapy buy

2019; American Chemical Society; Volume: 97; Issue: 10 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1021/cen-09710-buscon1

2474-7408

Ryan Cross,

Biomedical and Engineering Education

Biogen says it will acquire UK-based Nightstar Therapeutics for $800 million, a 68% premium over the firm's stock market value of about $500 million on March 1, before the deal was announced. The news "clearly reinforces the notion that gene therapy continues to be a 'hot' therapeutic area" for drug company acquisitions in 2019, analysts from J.P. Morgan wrote in a note to investors. On Feb. 25, Roche announced that it will purchase the gene-therapy company Spark Therapeutics for $4.8 billion. The muscular dystrophy drug firm Sarepta Therapeutics recently said it will pay $165 million to acquire a small Ohio-based gene-therapy start-up called Myonexus Therapeutics. And in January, Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay MeiraGTx $100 million in cash to develop and commercialize two retinal gene-therapy programs. Biogen dipped into the gene-therapy field in 2015 when it struck a deal with Applied Genetics Technologies Corp. (AGTC) to develop treatments for