PIXABAY, GERALTIn a deal worth $7.2 billion, the biotech company Celgene is adding Receptos—which has been moving a multiple sclerosis and ulcerative colitis drug through Phase 3 trials—to its roster of investments. This year, Celgene partnered with Juno Therapeutics to the tune of $1 billion to develop cancer immunotherapies, and purchased a checkpoint inhibitor therapy for blood cancers from AstraZeneca for $450 million, according to Xconomy.
The transaction could pan out to be a “steal” for Celgene if Receptos’s drug succeeds, Eric Schmidt, a managing director at financial services firm Cowen & Co., told Reuters. Annual sales for the medication, called ozinamod, could peak at $4 billion to $6 billion.
Receptos also has another drug for eosinophilic esophagitis in the works. “Trading $7.2 billion for just two clinical assets is eye-catching, to say the least, but Celgene believes Receptos has a winner in ozanimod, a drug management says has only scratched the surface of its potential,” according to FierceBiotech.
Data on ozinamod are expected in 2017. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, it’s not clear how many of Receptos’s 68 employees will be kept on the payroll, although a spokesman for ...
