Horizon Pharma acquires River Vision and its lead eye drug

Ireland-incorporated biopharma firm Horizon Pharma (Nasdaq: HZNP) has agreed to acquire River Vision Development and its development-stage medicine teprotumumab (RV001), a fully human monoclonal antibody (MAb) currently in development for thyroid eye disease (TED), a rare, autoimmune inflammatory disorder.

Under the terms of the accord, Horizon Pharma will make upfront cash payment of $145 million for all the shares of River Vision, plus potential future milestone and earn-out payments contingent on the satisfaction of certain regulatory milestones and sales thresholds.  The acquisition is expected to close today. Horizon expects teprotumumab, should it gain approval (and it already has US Food and Drug Administration orphan, fast-track and breakthrough designations), generating $250 million-plus in the US peak sales.

"This acquisition is an important step in our strategy of pursuing and acquiring development-stage medicines targeting rare diseases," said Timothy Walbert, chairman, president and chief executive of Horizon Pharma. "With no approved medicines to treat thyroid eye disease, there is a significant unmet treatment need among the approximately 10,000 patients in the United States with moderate to severe disease and we look forward to beginning the pivotal study with teprotumumab in the second half of this year."