Tag Archives: acc

Big biotech Gilead Sciences ( GILD ) added to its fatty-liver-disease portfolio Monday by acquiring a line of biotech drugs in a deal potentially worth $1.2 billion. Gilead acquired Nimbus Therapeutics ‘ Nimbus Apollo division for $400 million upfront, plus up to $800 million in milestones if Nimbus’ drugs successfully make it through the development process. And the deal seemed to spark the shares of another drugmaker targeting nonalcoholic steatohepatitis,  Intercept Pharmaceuticals ( ICPT ). Nimbus Apollo has a pipeline of  acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) inhibitors, the most advanced of which is NDI-010976 for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a common but currently untreatable condition causing liver damage through fat buildup. Phase-one trial results for NDI-010976 are due to be presented in a couple of weeks at the annual International Liver Congress. NASH is seen by analysts as a potentially enormous untapped market, and Gilead has been compiling a portfolio of drugs in the space to build on the liver-disease infrastructure it created to sell its massively successful hepatitis C drugs. In January 2015, the company bought Phenex Pharmaceuticals for its program targeting a different receptor, on top of its in-house development simtuzumab, which is in midstage testing for NASH. “These molecules will complement and further strengthen Gilead’s pipeline and capabilities to advance a broad clinical program in NASH that includes compounds targeting multiple key pathways involved in the pathogenesis of the disease,” Gilead Chief Scientific Officer Norbert Bischofberger said in a statement Monday. Credit Suisse analyst Alethia Young wrote that Gilead probably expects NASH to ultimately be treated with a combination therapy. The ACC approach has a bit of a checkered past, however. “This is a target that has been tried before by big pharm and has failed due to binding sites and difficulties in making it a drug-able target,” Young wrote in a research note. Young also wrote that she was “not surprised” that Gilead chose to buy Nimbus Apollo instead of Intercept, which has what is generally seen as the leading contender for NASH with its drug candidate obeticholic acid (OCA). Intercept has been bandied about as a buyout target by Gilead and other players in liver disease, but analysts say it’s unlikely that anyone will buy it before OCA is approved, and certainly not before this Thursday’s FDA advisory committee meeting on OCA . Intercept stock was nonetheless up 6% in strong volume in early afternoon trading on the stock market today , near 138. Gilead stock was up nearly 1%, near 95.