Incyte gobbles up Star's Vega haematology unit in $2bn deal
Bill Meury, Incyte's chief executive.
Incyte has agreed to buy Star Therapeutics subsidiary Vega Therapeutics for $1.25 billion upfront, adding a late-stage drug candidate for bleeding disorders.
There's another $750 million in milestones on offer tied to sales achievements for Vega's lead drug VGA039, a protein S modulator in the phase 3 VIVID-6 trial for von Willebrand disease (VWD), the most common inherited bleeding disorder, which affects around 135,000 people in the US alone.
Today's announcement partially confirms an earlier rumour that Incyte was preparing to buy Star entirely, but it now seems that the company will use the cash injection to develop the remaining candidates in its pipeline, which include complement-directed antibody-based therapeutics.
It is the first acquisition made by Incyte since Bill Meury took over as chief executive last year, part of a strategy to reduce the company's reliance on blockbuster blood cancer and graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) drug, Jakafi (ruxolitinib), which will start to lose patent protection in 2028. Direct Jakafi sales – and royalties on the drug sold by Novartis outside the US – accounted for around $3.5 billion of Incyte's total revenues of $5.1 billion last year.
"VGA039 fits directly into our strategy of building a top-tier growth company for the future" said Meury, who was previously CEO of Anthos Therapeutics and Karuna Therapeutics, and said recently that Incyte was seeking opportunities in 'de-risked' M&A.
"It is a first-in-class, phase 3 asset with compelling early data, a manageable development path, and the potential to become an important new growth driver in one of our core therapeutic areas – haematology," he added.
Incyte reckons that VGA039 has the potential to be the first subcutaneous prophylactic therapy for patients with VWD who currently require intravenous infusions two or three times a week to prevent the bleeding episodes that can dramatically affect patients' quality of life and complicate even minor injuries and surgeries.
It could also be broadly applicable across the different types of VWD, which can be caused by a mutated form of von Willebrand factor, or a partial or complete deficiency in the clotting protein, as well as all types of bleeds. Limitations to current therapies and underdiagnosis mean that the treated patient population in the US is estimated at only around 35,000 in recent years.
In a presentation on the deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter, Incyte said that VGA039 has the potential to significantly expand the use of prophylaxis for VWD and is addressing a "$1 billion-plus market opportunity." Results from VIVID-6 are due in 2029.
