Amgen to acquire ChemoCentryx in $3.7bn cash deal

Amgen will acquire ChemoCentryx in an agreement valued at approximately $3.7bn in cash, the company has announced. ChemoCentryx is a biopharmaceutical company focused on orally administered therapeutics to treat autoimmune diseases, inflammatory disorders and cancer.

The agreement, which includes the acquisition of ChemoCentryx’s autoimmune disease treatment Tavneos (avacopan), will see Amgen pay $52 in cash per share. Completion is subject to customary closing conditions, including ChemoCentryx stockholder and regulatory approvals. The transaction has been unanimously approved by each company's board of directors and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Chairman and chief executive officer at Amgen, Robert Bradway, said in a statement that the acquisition would add to the company’s “decades-long leadership in inflammation and nephrology”.

He continued: "We are excited to join in the Tavneos launch and help many more patients with this serious and sometimes life-threatening disease for which there remains significant unmet medical need. We also look forward to welcoming the highly skilled team from ChemoCentryx that shares our passion for serving patients suffering from serious diseases.”

Tavneos is an orally administered selective complement component 5a receptor inhibitor. In October 2021, the drug was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an adjunctive treatment for adult patients with severe active antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis – an umbrella term for a group of multi-system autoimmune diseases with small vessel inflammation – in combination with standard therapy. The treatment is also approved in major markets outside the US, including the EU and Japan.

In patients with ANCA-associated vasculitis, inflamed vessels may rupture or become blocked, giving rise to a range of clinical symptoms and signs related to a systemic inflammatory response which may result in severe injury and dysfunction in the kidneys, lungs and other organs.

Prior to the approval of Tavneos, treatment for ANCA-associated vasculitis was limited to courses of non-specific immuno-suppressants, combined with the administration of daily glucocorticoids – steroids – for prolonged periods of time, associated with significant clinical risk, including death from infection.

As well as Tavneos, ChemoCentryx has three early-stage drug candidates that target chemoattractant receptors in other inflammatory diseases and an oral checkpoint inhibitor for cancer.