AstraZeneca Completes Acquisition of ZS Pharma
AstraZeneca has completed its previously announced tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of ZS Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company based in San Mateo, California, for $2.7 billion, and the subsequent acquisition of the company.
The deal strengthens AstraZeneca's cardiovascular and metabolic disease (CVMD) portfolio with the addition of the potassium-binding compound, ZS-9 (sodium zirconium cyclosilicate), for treating hyperkalaemia, a condition associated with increased mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), diabetes mellitus (DM), and chronic heart failure (CHF). ZS-9 is under regulatory review by the US Food and Drug Administration with a Prescription Drug User Fee Act goal date of May 26, 2016. A submission for European marketing application authorization is also progressing as planned.
ZS-9 complements AstraZeneca’s increasing focus on CKD and CHF, including the investigational medicine, roxadustat, which is currently in Phase III development for patients with anaemia associated with CKD, as well as its diabetes portfolio, a comorbidity often associated with CKD and CHF patients.
Upon completion, ZS Pharma, which has around 200 employees across three sites in California, Texas, and Colorado, will become a wholly owned subsidiary of AstraZeneca.
Source: AstraZeneca
.