Alexion makes up to $1.2 billion acquisition

It’s not often that the company announcing an acquisition sees a significant share price spurt, but this was certainly the case on Wednesday for Alexion Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ALXN), which gained over 5.1% to $135.61.

Alexion has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Syntimmune, a clinical-stage biotechnology company with an experimental drug for a rare type of anemia, warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia (WAIHA).

Syntimmune is developing antibody therapeutics targeting the neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn). SYNT001 – a humanized monoclonal antibody that inhibits the interaction of FcRn with Immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgG immune complexes – has the potential to improve treatment in a number of rare IgG-mediated diseases.