Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd has agreed to acquire U.S. biopharmaceutical firm Auspex Pharmaceuticals Inc, boosting its range of treatments for the central nervous system (CNS), Reuters reported.
Under the terms of the definitive merger agreement announced on Monday, Teva will buy the outstanding shares of Auspex at $101.00 per share in cash. The deal represents total consideration of approximately $3.2 billion in enterprise value and approximately $3.5 billion in equity value.
Erez Vigodman, president and CEO of Teva, said that the acquisition of Auspex would strengthen the company's leadership position in CNS and expand its presence into underserved movement disorder markets.
"We look forward to accelerating the development and commercialization of the Auspex portfolio based on our infrastructure, capabilities and strong commercial and R&D position in CNS," he added.
Michael Hayden, M.D., Ph.D., Teva's president of global R&D and chief scientific officer, also welcomed the deal.
"We believe that the application of Auspex's deuterium platform to known pharmaceuticals holds great promise across a wide spectrum of neurological diseases and associated movement disorders, including Huntington's disease, tardive dyskinesia and Tourette syndrome. Auspex's lead candidate, SD-809, offers compelling efficacy and safety benefits to patients, as demonstrated by the impressive Phase 3 topline data in Huntington's disease announced in December 2014," he said.
SD-809 for Huntington's disease is expected to be approved and launched commercially in 2016.
Teva expects the addition of Auspex to enhance its mid- to long-term revenue and earnings growth, profitability and product diversity.
The transaction is predicted to be accretive to adjusted earnings per share from 2017 and "meaningfully accretive" thereafter.
