Japan’s Astellas Pharma buys U.S. Iveric Bio for $5.9bln

Japan’s Astellas Pharma agreed on Monday to acquire U.S. drugmaker Iveric Bio Inc for $5.9 billion, through Berry Merger Sub, Inc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Astellas U.S. Holding, Inc.

Astellas bought IVERIC for $40.00 per share in cash, for a total equity value of approximately $5.9 billion, according to the company’s statement mentioned.

The total equity value of Iveric Bio in the acquisition assumes that there are approximately 148.2 million outstanding shares of Iveric Bio common stock on a fully diluted basis.

“We are pleased to reach an agreement with Iveric Bio, a company with exceptional expertise in the R&D of innovative therapeutics in the ophthalmology field.” said Naoki Okamura, President and CEO, Astellas.

Okamura also added that “we believe that this acquisition will enable us to deliver greater value to patients with ocular diseases at high risk of blindness.”

The deal marks the fifth major overseas acquisition by Astellas, Japan’s third biggest drugmaker by sales, since 2019 in a push to shore up its pipeline as its main sellers lose patent protection.