Yahoo Finance AbbVie's (ABBV) Celsius Therapeutics Deal to Boost IBD Presence
AbbVie ABBV announced that it has acquired Celsius Therapeutics, a private biotech making novel therapies for treating inflammatory bowel diseases (“IBD”).
The acquisition will add Celsius Therapeutics’ lead pipeline candidate, CEL383, to AbbVie’s pipeline. CEL383 is a potential first-in-class TREM1 inhibitor, which has completed phase I study in IBD conditions. AbbVie will pursue further development of CEL383.
TREM1 has been identified as a key gene involved in inflammation pathways associated with IBD. In preclinical studies, CEL383 has demonstrated the ability to inhibit TREM1 signaling effectively.
AbbVie is paying $250 million in cash for acquiring all outstanding equity of Celsius Therapeutics.
Year to date, AbbVie’s stock has risen 9.1% compared with a rise of 22.0% for the industry.
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The acquisition has expanded AbbVie’s presence in the IBD market. AbbVie has been making regular M&A deals to expand its portfolio in IBD treatments. In May, AbbVie closed its previously announced acquisition of Landos Biopharma, which added Landos’ lead pipeline candidate, NX-13, a first-in-class, oral NLRX1 agonist in phase II development for the treatment of ulcerative colitis (“UC”). Earlier this month, AbbVie in-licensed exclusive global rights to develop and commercialize FG-M701, a next-generation TL1A antibody for the treatment of IBD indications from the Chinese biotech FutureGen Biopharmaceutical.
In recent years, there has been a surge in the prevalence of IBD conditions, Crohn's disease (“CD") and UC, both characterized by chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract.
There has been a rapid increase in cases of CD and UC due to genetic factors, environmental factors and lifestyle changes. In addition, immune system irregularities, higher diagnosis rates, increased focus on early diagnosis and favorable reimbursement policies in developed countries are driving demand for IBD treatments.
Several big drugmakers are developing new medicines to treat UC and CD with novel mechanisms of action to help patients achieve long-term clinical remission. Like AbbVie, other large drugmakers are acquiring smaller biotechs, making IBD candidates with improved clinical profiles.
In June 2023, Merck MRK acquired the small biotech Prometheus Biosciences, which added tulisokibart/MK-7240 to its pipeline. Merck is developing MK-7240, a novel TL1A inhibitor, for the treatment of UC, CD and other autoimmune conditions.
In October 2023, Sanofi SNY in-licensed rights to jointly develop and commercialize Teva Pharmaceutical’s TEVA IBD candidate, TEV’574, also an anti-TL1A therapy. Teva has partnered with Sanofi for its anti-TL1A candidate to maximize the value of the asset. TEV’574 is presently being evaluated in a phase IIb study for UC and CD.
In December 2023, Roche acquired Telavant Holdings from Roivant, which held the rights to RVT-3101, a promising new therapy in development for IBD conditions. For the deal, Roche made an upfront payment of approximately $7.1 billion to Roivant. Telavant Holdings was a Roivant company, owned by Roivant Sciences and Pfizer.
Zacks Rank
AbbVie currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
AbbVie Inc. Price and Consensus
AbbVie Inc. price-consensus-chart | AbbVie Inc. Quote
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