Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced it has completed its acquisition of Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The acquisition adds two clinical-stage oral small molecule Factor D inhibitors to Alexion’s pipeline and provides the foundation and expertise for a broader oral Factor D inhibition development platform with the potential to treat numerous additional complement-mediated diseases.
“The acquisition of Achillion adds two clinical-stage Factor D inhibitors to our growing pipeline, representing important continued momentum in expanding and diversifying our portfolio and advancing our mission of transforming the lives of people with rare diseases,” said Ludwig Hantson, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Alexion. “We believe oral Factor D inhibition holds great promise in treating people with multiple rare, complement-mediated diseases, providing the opportunity to significantly expand our portfolio into new therapeutic areas and to help many more patients. We look forward to the expertise the Achillion team brings to Alexion, which, combined with our own complement biology and rare disease development and commercialization experience, will enable us to collectively accelerate progress of the development programs. We are committed to maintaining continuity in the programs currently underway and will be moving quickly to advance Achillion's efforts.”
Alexion will continue development of Achillion’s oral Factor D inhibitor portfolio, which includes two clinical-stage medicines-in-development – danicopan (ACH-4471) and ACH-5228 – as well as multiple compounds in preclinical development. Phase 3 development is being initiated for danicopan as an add-on therapy for PNH patients with extravascular hemolysis (EVH). Danicopan is also in Phase 2 development for C3G, and ACH-5228 is in Phase 2 development for PNH.
