In its first acquisition since embarking on a root-and-branch reform last year, Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. has made an agreed cash offer worth $855m for Wilson Therapeutics AB to obtain the Swedish biotech's sole asset, a first-in-class oral copper-binding agent with a unique mechanism of action and ability to access and bind copper from serum and promote its removal from the liver.
Alexion, which is trying to reduce its dependence on aging blockbuster Soliris (eculizumab), has over the past year been revamping its business under new CEO Ludwig Hantson and CFO Paul Clancy, cutting back R&D to four key areas, those being hematology, metabolic disorders, kidney and neurologic diseases, while at the same time ending a number of