I saw this Article this morning so there is obviously deals to be done 
Astellas to buy Iveric Bio for $5.9B in cash as biotech awaits August FDA nod in retinal diseaseKyle LaHucikAssociate EditorAstellas Pharma will buy New Jersey biotech Iveric Bio for $40 per share in cash, the companies said Sunday night, setting up the Tokyo drugmaker for a potential showdown with Apellis Pharmaceuticals in geographic atrophy.The $5.9 billion deal adds to a string of buyouts in recent weeks as Big Pharmas have gone hunting for late-stage drug candidates to boost their aging pipelines, with Pfizer, GSK, Merck and others lining up acquisitions.Both Astellas’ and Iveric’s boards have approved the deal, which represents a 75% premium to the 30-day trading volume weighted average price on March 31.The deal marks at least the second for Astellas in geographic atrophy, a leading cause of blindness. The company bought Ocata Therapeutics for about $379 million in cash in 2015 and has taken its GA cell therapy into a Phase I clinical trial which is set to collect final data next August.The latest acquisition could lead to a much quicker commercialization outlook for Astellas, as Iveric expects a regulatory decision this summer.By Aug. 19, Iveric will hear from the FDA on its drug candidate avacincaptad pegol for GA. Competitor Apellis snagged the first treatment approval for the condition in February, marketing its drug as Syfovre. Both are complement inhibitors, with Iveric going after the C5 protein and Syfovre hitting C3. Others, like Complement Therapeutics, are just getting started.“The opportunity to create a world-class entity with the ophthalmology expertise and capabilities of Iveric Bio and the global reach and resources of Astellas is unique and has the potential to benefit patients worldwide suffering from blinding retinal diseases, including GA,” Iveric president Pravin Dugel said in a press release.Astellas characterized the Iveric deal as adding value to its “blindness & regeneration” category, one of its five focus areas. With the consummation of Iveric, the Japanese pharma gets a breakthrough-designated drug that cleared the bar in two pivotal trials. The drug, sometimes referred to by its Eyetech Pharmaceuticals-appointed name Zimura, was better than sham across all key subgroups in a Phase III study, the company reported last fall at the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual confab.The drug, if approved, will “help compensate for the decline in sales of XTANDI,” Astellas said, referring to its prostate cancer drug up for patent expiration later this decade.The companies said they expect the deal to close in the third calendar quarter of this year, which is the second quarter of Astellas’ fiscal year 2023. The deal will be funded by bank loans, commercial paper and cash on hand, Astellas said, noting it will repay the debt within five to seven years.Astellas has been relatively quiet on the M&A front in recent years after going on a deal spree from 2018 to 2020, buying up Mitobridge, Universal Cells, Quethera, Potenza Therapeutics, Xyphos Biosciences, Audentes Therapeutics, Nanna Therapeutics and iota Biosciences.Iveric had $646.8 million in cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale securities at the end of 2022, with 163 full-time employees. It plans to hire a 120-person commercial team by early April. In December, Iveric also said it would sell two preclinical-stage retinal disease gene therapies to Opus Genetics.
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