Shire (NASDAQ:SHPGY) has acquired the assets of a therapeutics firm, including a vascular surgery technology undergoing phase 2 clinical trials in a move that stands to bolster its regenerative medicine division.
As part of the agreement, Shire will provide Pervasis with an up-front payment, along with milestone payments tied to the drugs meeting clinical development, regulatory and sales targets, according to a company statement. The value of the deal was not disclosed, but milestone payments are expected to be worth up to $200 million.
The deal gives Shire a treatment technology used to aid vascular surgery called Vascugel, licensed by MIT and developed by Dr. Elazer R. Edelman, the director of the Harvard-MIT Biomedical Engineering Center. Vascugel is designed to provide acute vascular repair technologies to improve hemodialysis access for patients with end-stage renal disease, a significant unmet medical need. About 40 percent of patients with end-stage renal disease have diabetes, so the acquisition also provides some crossover with patients using Shire’s diabetic foot ulcer treatment, Dermagraft.
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Vascugel is designed to alleviate complications that can be caused by establishing an arteriovenous (AV) access site using an AV graft. Using it on the outside of the vessel at the AV access site during surgery can help the blood vessel receive key regulatory signals to promote natural vessel repair to aid the healing response, according to Pervasis’ website.
Another major asset that Shire gains through the transaction is Pervasis’ endothelial cell therapy. Endothelial cells help regulate the body’s healing processes. Although applications include inflammation and orthopedic injury, the acquisition does not include Pervasis’ oncology platform.
The Boston-based Regenerative Medicine Division of Shire, an Irish pharmaceutical company with U.S. offices in Philadelphia, stands to gain considerably from the acquisition, according to Regenerative Medicine President Kevin Rakin. “This acquisition marks a very important step for Shire in building a Regenerative Medicine business focused on tissue repair and regeneration.”
