Astellas Completes $5.9-Bn Acquisition of Iveric Bio 

Astellas Pharma has completed its $5.9-billion acquisition of Iveric Bio, a Parsippany, New Jersey-based bio/pharmaceutical company focused on ophthalmology. The acquisition was announced in late April (April 2023). 

Iveric Bio’s lead drug candidate is an avacincaptad pegol for treating  geographic atrophy, a chronic progressive degeneration of the macula as part of late-stage age-related macular degeneration. The company announced in February 2023 that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted the company’s new drug application (NDA) for the drug. The NDA was granted priority review with a Prescription Drug User Fee Act goal date of August 19, 2023. 

The acquisition fits one of Astellas’ five areas of therapeutic focus in the company’s growth strategy: developing treatments for vision loss, blindness, and regeneration. The other areas are genetic medicines, immuno-oncology, treatments addressing mitochondrial dysfunction, and targeted protein degradation to address undruggable drugs in various disease areas.   

With the closing of the acquisition, Iveric Bio has become an indirectly wholly owned subsidiary of Astellas. 

Source: Astellas