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 GSK to acquire Sirtris for $720 million
04-23-2008
SHARING OPTIONS:
LONDON—Looking
to strengthen its pipeline of metabolism and anti-aging compounds,
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced on Tuesday it reached a definitive agreement to
acquire Cambridge, Mass.-based Sirtris Pharmaceuticals through a cash tender
offer of $22.50 per share, or approximately $720 million.
To that end, GSK announced the Sirtris operation will remain
at its Massachusetts headquarters and will operate as an autonomous unit within
GSK’s drug discovery organization.
Current CEO and Vice Chair of Sirtris,
Christoph Westphal and the rest of the management team will continue to lead
the operation.
“We have built a dynamic and scientifically-driven
organization. We expect this transaction will accelerate our vision to target
sirtuins to treat diseases of metabolism and ageing and deliver tremendous
value to patients, our shareholders and our employees,” says Westphal in the
acquisition announcement. “We look forward to working with GlaxoSmithKline and
their world-class research, development and commercialization organization.”
Sirtris is one of a small number of companies involved in
R&D programs focused on a class of enzymes called sirtuins. Sirtuins have
been implicated in both the aging process and metabolism and have the potential
to treat a wide range of diseases including Type 2 diabetes. The company’s
focus, thus far has been on the enzyme SIRT1, which has been shown to play a
key role in the health benefits related to calorie restriction. A number of
publications over the past couple of years have suggested that the beneficial
affects of calorie restriction are triggered by the activation of SIRT1.
Currently, Sirtris has its lead compound SRT501 in Phase 1b
clinical trials as a treatment for Type 2 diabetes. SRT 501 is the company’s
proprietary formulation of the substance resveratrol, a natural substance that
is found most notably in red wine. Last week, the company also announced positive
in vivo data that indicate overexpression of SIRT1 can aid in tumor
suppression. As a result, the company now expects to launch human trials of a
cancer therapeutic later this year.
Shares of Sirtris, which closed at $12.23 the day before the
acquisition announcement, soared roughly 83 percent to an intraday high of
$22.34 based on the $22.50 per share offer, while the market also seemed to
approve of the deal by boosting GSK shares 81 cents to an intraday high of
$44.54.
Some of the surprise to the deal may be that it runs a bit
counter to other recent acquisitions by large pharmas which have tended to
target companies that have products already on the market or in later stage
trials, such as the acquisition of Millennium Pharamaceuticals by Japanese
pharma Takeda announced earlier this month. Back  |
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