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Allergan’s Tab For Tobira’s NASH Cocktail With Akarna Chaser Tops $1.7bn

 
• By Mandy Jackson

Allergan will pay a huge premium – up to $1.7bn in a milestone-heavy deal – for Tobira and $50m up front for the preclinical startup Akarna to expand its gastrointestinal franchise into the potentially lucrative NASH market.

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Allergan PLC took its time observing the non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) drug pipeline, but moved quickly and aggressively when the company found what it was looking for. Allergan revealed in separate announcements on Sept. 20 that it could spend more than $1.7bn to buy Tobira Therapeutics Inc. and its two-drug NASH cocktail plus a preclinical chaser from Akarna Therapeutics Inc.

Allergan’s Chief Research and Development Officer David Nicholson told Scrip that the company has been looking at the NASH space for a while, so it acted fast – and spared no expense – to buy Tobira after the San Francisco-based firm reported Phase II data in July for lead drug candidate cenicriviroc (CVC)

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