Allergan’s Buying Spree Rolls On

The Ireland-based pharma company makes a $1.7 billion offer to acquire Tobira Therapeutics, a US firm developing liver disease drugs.

Written byBob Grant

| 2 min read

Save for Later

Listen with Speechify

0:00

2:00

WIKIMEDIA, ANONAllergan, the Dublin-headquartered pharmaceutical company, is maintaining its mergers and acquisitions activity with a $1.7 billion offer to buy San Francisco–based Tobira Therapeutics, according to a joint statement the firms released yesterday (September 20). Allergan has its sights set on Tobira’s experimental therapies for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a common comorbidity of type 2 diabetes characterized by inflammation, fat accumulation, and cellular damage in the liver.

“The acquisition of Tobira is a strategic R&D investment within a white space area of our global Gastroenterology franchise and an opportunity to advance the development of novel treatments for NASH,” Allergan CEO Brent Saunders said in the statement. “With the increasing rates of diabetes, obesity and other metabolic conditions in the U.S. and in developed nations globally, NASH is set to become one of the next epidemic-level chronic diseases we face as a society. It is important that we invest in new treatments today so that healthcare systems, providers and patients have treatment options to face this challenge in the coming years.”

Allergan has made news in recent days with its acquisition of Akarna Therapeutics, which also makes drugs to treat NASH, and its ...

Interested in reading more?

The Scientist ARCHIVES

Become a Member of

Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!

Join for free today

Already a member? Login Here

Meet the Author

Bob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
View Full Profile