Bayer AG, the German healthcare group, announced to spend $1.5 billion in an attempt to take over Vividion Therapeutics, a small U.S. based biotechnology firm, working on manufacturing novel drugs for the previously unknown binding sites.
According to a press release, the deal includes $1.5 billion upfront payment, along with success-based milestone payments worth $500 million, which is supposed to be closed by the third quarter.
San-Diego based Vividion Therapeutics, which was founded in 2013, focuses on NRF2-mutant cancers and NRF2 activators for inflammatory diseases like Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
The deal gives Bayer full rights to Vividion’s chemoproteomic screening technology (interaction between small molecule compounds and proteins), data portal and proprietary chemistry library, while the firm is allowed to continue its operations all by itself.
President of Bayer’s pharmaceuticals division, Stefan Oelrich, said that this step will expand firm’s abilities to discover new treatments and add value to its drug pipeline.
In a statement he said, “Vividion’s technology is the most advanced in the industry, and it has demonstrated its ability to identify drug candidates that can target challenging proteins. Together with Bayer’s existing know-how, we will be able to develop first-in-class drug candidates, increasing the value of our pipeline. We want to provide innovative therapies for patients whose medical needs are not yet met by today’s treatment options.”
According to Jeff Hatfield, Vividion’s CEO, the company’s technology together with Bayer’s endorsement, puts them in “an unparalleled position” to “unlock undruggable targets and generate first-in-class novel compounds for the benefits of patients.”
The biotech was trying to raise funds from initial public offering until late June, however, the German healthcare group managed to convince the firm with a bid that would allow the firm to carry out its autonomous operations, providing the support and resources of a global healthcare corporation. The deal is Bayer’s recent acquisition in an attempt to boost its pharmaceutical business. Prior to this deal, the global healthcare group had spent $240 million in August 2018, to acquire cell-therapy company BlueRock, and then $2 billion in October 2020, to acquire North Carolina-based gene therapy developer, AskBio.
