Bolstered by a full FDA approval for its primary immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) treatment Tarpeyo, Calliditas has earned the attention of Japanese chemical giant Asahi Kasei.
Asahi has made a cash offer to acquire Sweden’s Calliditas in a deal worth 11.16 billion Swedish crowns ($1.06 billion), the companies announced Tuesday.
The proposal has already won the blessing of three of the Swedish drugmaker’s biggest stakeholders—BVF Partners, Linc AB and Stiftelsen Industrifonden—plus “other large securityholders," Calliditas explained in a release.
An acceptance period for the offer is expected to commence on or around July 18 and expire around August 30, the companies added.
Asahi’s bid for Calliditas represents a 74% premium to the company’s closing U.S. share price of $22.42 on May 24. Calliditas lists on both the Nasdaq in New York and Nasdaq Stockholm.
Calliditas’ board believes the acquisition will benefit the company thanks to Asahi’s existing marketed offerings and its know-how in rare disease drug development and commercialization. As part of a larger platform under Asahi, Calliditas hopes to accelerate its revenue growth and pipeline development, according to the board.
Asahi, for its part, said it’s charting the buyout in an effort to expand its business into “immunology, transplantation and adjacent diseases,” with a particular focus on the U.S. market.
The Japanese conglomerate added that Calliditas’ Tarpeyo will groove well with Asahi’s existing geographic and therapeutic footholds.
Asahi Kasei is one of Japan’s top industrial companies, with operations across chemicals, electronics, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and more. Back in 2020, the conglomerate established a U.S. pharmaceutical business platform through its acquisition of Veloxis Pharmaceuticals.
More recently, the company in 2022 said it would pay an undisclosed sum to acquire Bay Area biologics maker Bionova Scientific in order to branch out into the CDMO space.
Altogether, Asahi’s goal for the buyout is threefold: To solidify its U.S. presence by expanding its in-house sales structure for renal and autoimmune diseases; to establish a presence in Europe, initially focused on R&D; and to expand the scope of its in-licensing and new drug development opportunities.
Asahi's buyout offer comes about half a year after Calliditas upgraded its accelerated approval for Tarpeyo, which is now the first treatment with a full FDA nod to treat the chronic autoimmune kidney condition IgAN, also known as Berger’s disease. The expanded green light also gave a boost to Tarpeyo’s label, allowing the drug to treat all patients with IgAN, rather than just those at risk for rapid disease progression.
Aside from the Asahi acquisition reveal, Calliditas on Tuesday also rolled out additional efficacy and real-world data analysis on Tarpeyo at the 61st meeting of the European Renal Association (ERA).
Calliditas’ efficacy analysis showed that treatment with Tarpeyo over nine months was linked to greater eGFR benefit versus continuous treatment with sparsentan over two years. eGFR, or estimated glomerular filtration rate, is a common measure of kidney function.