Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Acquires Concert Pharma for $576M

Last month, Sun Pharma announced that it would pay $8 per share to acquire Concert for a total of $576 million in cash.

During the first three quarters of 2022, Concert recorded a net loss of nearly $90 million, with $75.7 million in research and development expenses. According to Sun Pharma’s announcement, Concert maintains at least $148 million in cash, cash equivalents, and investments, while the new parent company had net cash of $1.6 billion.

“Sun Pharma is building a global dermatology and ophthalmology franchise and aims to be a preferred development and commercial partner in these therapies worldwide,” said Abhay Gandhi, CEO of North America, Sun Pharma. “The acquisition of Concert adds a late-stage, potential best-in-class treatment for Alopecia Areata in deuruxolitinib.”

In a recent stroke of luck, Concert managed to maintain deuruxolitinib’s Breakthrough Therapy designation after Eli Lilly’s rival treatment was approved.

Deuruxolitinib is the only drug in Concert’s pipeline, but it could become one of the few approved treatment options for patients with alopecia areata. The drug is currently in its THRIVE-AA Phase 3 clinical trial after the Phase 1 and 2 trials reported positive topline data. In those experiments, deuruxolitinib achieved its primary efficacy endpoint, increasing the percentage of patients with an absolute Severity of Alopecia Tool score of 20 or less after 24 weeks of treatment compared to placebo.

Concert and Sun plan to submit a New Drug Application for deuruxolitinib to the FDA in the first half of this year based on the results from Phase 1 and 2 trials.

Outside of its alopecia treatment, Concert has entered into multiple strategic collaborations that take advantage of the company’s deuterium chemical entity platform to improve the therapeutic properties of drug compounds. Under their agreement with Avanir pharmaceuticals, the two companies will develop a treatment for neurologic and psychiatric disorders using deuterium-substituted dextromethorphan and an ultra-low dose of quinidine. Concert is also working with Cipla to develop and commercialize a novel GABAA receptor modulator for treating spasticity and other CNS disorders.

“We are proud to see our team’s accomplishment — creating a valuable new drug candidate for a major, underserved disease — appropriately recognized and valued by Sun Pharma as a means to expand their ongoing, international commitment to dermatology,” said Roger Tung, PhD, President and CEO of Concert.

Sun’s largest purchase prior to the Concert deal saw it buy the generic drug manufacturer Ranbaxy Laboratories for $4 billion in 2015. At the time, the Federal Trade Commission forced both companies to divest their interests in generic minocycline tablets to finalize the merger.