AbbVie already has blockbuster medicine for ulcerative colitis, however that isn’t stopping the pharmaceutical large from making an attempt to broaden its scope on this illness. To that finish, the corporate is buying Landos Biopharma, a clinical-stage biotech whose lead asset brings a special strategy to treating this prevalent inflammatory dysfunction of the intestine.
In keeping with deal phrases introduced Monday deal, AbbVie pays $20.42 for every share of Blacksburg, Virginia-based Landos, which represents a 155% premium to the biotech’s closing inventory value on Friday.
Landos’s drug, named NX-13, is a small molecule designed to focus on and activate the NOD-like receptor X1, or NLRX1. This receptor is related to the modulation of inflammatory proteins concerned in ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s illness. As a once-daily oral drug, NX-13 would supply a extra handy dosing various to many inflammatory bowel dysfunction medicine which might be administered as injections or infusions, together with some merchandise at present marketed by AbbVie.
In a Part 1b check enrolling sufferers with energetic ulcerative colitis, the Landos drug posted outcomes exhibiting it was secure and properly tolerated throughout a spread of doses. Moreover, the outcomes confirmed alerts of medical enchancment. Outcomes had been revealed final November within the Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis. A placebo-controlled Part 2 proof-of-concept medical trial is underway testing two doses of the drug. The examine has a focused enrollment of 80 sufferers who’ve moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis. Preliminary information are anticipated within the fourth quarter of this yr.
“With this acquisition, we intention to advance the medical growth of NX-13, a differentiated, first-in-class, oral asset with the potential to make a distinction within the lives of individuals residing with ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s illness,” AbbVie’s Roopal Thakkar, senior vp, chief medical officer, international therapeutics, mentioned in a ready assertion.
AbbVie brings a number of totally different approaches to the intestinal irritation, irritation, and ulcers attributable to ulcerative colitis. Humira an antibody drug designed to bind to and block tumor necrosis issue alpha, a protein related to a number of inflammatory issues. Rinvoq, accredited for each Crohn’s illness and ulcerative colitis, belongs to a category of medication that block a special set of inflammatory proteins referred to as Janus kinases. The antibody drug Skyrizi blocks IL-23, a signaling protein related to irritation. Skyrizi, whose accredited indications embody the remedy of Crohn’s illness, is at present underneath regulatory evaluate for ulcerative colitis.
The AbbVie pipeline contains ABBV-668, a RIPK1 inhibitor at present in Part 2 testing in ulcerative colitis. AbbVie additionally holds an choice to a biologic drug that Calibr, a division of Scripps Analysis, is creating for inflammatory bowel illness. This program is in Part 1 testing.
Based in 2017, Landos was one of many first startups in Xontogeny, an accelerator run by Chairman and CEO Chris Garabedian, a biotech trade veteran. Whereas the per share value of AbbVie’s Landos acquisition is a premium to its closing inventory value final Friday in addition to its $16 per share IPO value in 2021, the biotech’s shares haven’t traded anyplace close to that value for greater than two years. Final Could, the corporate accomplished a 1-for-10 reverse inventory break up that consolidated shares in an effort to increase the inventory value to take care of compliance with the Nasdaq’s itemizing necessities. On a split-adjusted foundation, the per-share acquisition value continues to be beneath Landos’s IPO value.
Nevertheless, Landos shareholders may obtain extra. The deal features a contingent worth proper that can pay as much as $11.14 per share, including $75 million to the acquisition value. That further fee is tied to the achievement of a medical growth milestone. In a regulatory submitting, Landos mentioned the milestone is the beginning of Part 3 testing of NX-13 or every other drug candidate addressing the NRLX1 pathway for the remedy of ulcerative colitis. This examine should begin earlier than March 31, 2029, in response to the settlement.
In analysis word despatched to traders on Monday, Leerink Companions analyst Thomas Smith wrote that Landos is a “logical strategic match” for AbbVie, offering the pharma large with optionality in its inflammatory bowel dysfunction pipeline for a comparatively modest upfront money fee. Whereas acknowledging some overlap with AbbVie’s Rinvoq, Skyrizi, and Humira in addition to the clinical-stage property for inflammatory bowel illness, Smith mentioned Leerink believes there may be excessive chance of the acquisition closing and low threat of opposition from the Federal Commerce Fee.
Photograph: Smith Assortment/Gado, by way of Getty Pictures