ZURICH – Novartis AG has bought privately held U.S. biotech company Protez Pharmaceuticals in a deal worth up to $400 million, giving it rights to an antibiotic which could be used to fight superbugs such as MRSA.
The deal underscores big pharmaceutical companies' growing appetite for promising assets developed by small biotech companies.
“(The) acquisition of Protez Pharmaceuticals provides rights to PZ-601 and further strengthens (our) specialty medicines development portfolio in hospital infections,” Novartis said in a statement on Wednesday.
PZ-601 is a novel broad-spectrum antibiotic given by injection, which is currently in mid-stage Phase II development against potentially deadly drug-resistant infections, including MRSA and ESBL.
Novartis hopes to submit it for regulatory approval in 2012. The Swiss group will pay $100 million immediately for the business, with a potential for up to $300 million of additional payments depending on the future success of PZ-601.
The emergence of hospital superbugs such as methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and extended-spectrum beta-lactamase enterobacteriaceae (ESBL), which are resistant to existing medicines, has increased the need for alternative treatments and re-focused drugmakers' attention on antibiotics.
Most so-called “superbug” infections are acquired while patients are in hospital.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2 million people in the United States develop hospital-acquired infections each year, while in Europe there are an estimated 3 million infections.
PZ-601 belongs to class of antibiotics known as carbapenems.
A 100-patient, Phase II study was started by Protez in May 2008 in the United States and Novartis said it would now initiate additional clinical trials.
Buying the Malvern, Pennsylvania-based company marks a further bet on the growing importance of novel anti-infectives by Novartis.
It acquired three biotech compounds – Mycograb, Aurograb and Tifacogin – to treat life-threatening bacterial and fungal infections in 2006, and also has rights to market the antibiotic Cubicin for complicated infections in Europe.
(Additional reporting by Ben Hirschler in London; Editing by Louise Ireland)
