Amgen to acquire Otezla in multi-billion dollar deal

Complying with US Federal Trade Commission requirements, US biotech major Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN) has reached agreement with Celgene (Nasdaq: CELG) to acquire worldwide rights to the latter’s Otezla(apremilast), the only oral, non-biologic treatment for psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.

As a condition of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s (NYSE: BMY) $74 billion acquisition of Celgene, the FTC said that Otezla would have to be divested due to competition concerns with B-MS drug pipeline. Bristol-Myers has previously noted that “the company is continuing to develop its promising immunology pipeline asset, tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2) inhibitor, in several autoimmune diseases, including psoriasis.”

Under the terms of the deal, Amgen will pay $13.4 billion in cash, or around $11.2 billion, net of the present value of $2.2 billion in anticipated future cash tax benefits, for Otezla.