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Amgen is spending US$26.4 billion to dive deeper into rare-disease treatments with a deal for drugmaker Horizon Therapeutics.
The biotech drug developer said on Monday that it will pay US$116.50 in cash for each share of Horizon, which makes a thyroid eye disease treatment that generated more than US$1 billion in its first full year on the market.
The deal offers Amgen another chance to build its portfolio of rare-disease treatments after it closed in October a roughly US$3.7-billion acquisition of ChemoCentryx, which focuses on autoimmune disease drugs.
Horizon Therapeutics PLC, based in Dublin, Ireland, develops potential treatments for rare, autoimmune and severe inflammatory diseases. Its bestseller, Tepezza, is only approved in the United States and treats eye bulging and double vision from thyroid eye disease.
US regulators approved Tepezza in early 2020 as the first treatment for thyroid eye disease. The drug’s sales more than doubled last year to US$1.67 billion. That’s about half of the company’s total sales of US$3.23 billion.