Amryt and Chiasma Combine

BioSpace

 

Amryt inked an all-stock acquisition deal with Chiasma. The combined company will focus on rare and orphan diseases with three marketed products and a strong development pipeline.

Under the terms of the deal, each share of Chiasma common stock that has been issued will be exchanged for 0.396 Amryt American Depositary Shares (ADSs), with each representing five Amryt ordinary shares. As of May 4, 2021, at close of trading day, Amryt’s ordinary shares were $2.78 per share and Amryt’s ADS’s on Nasdaq were $12.95 per ADS.

“We are really excited by today’s news and are looking forward to welcoming the Chiasma team to Amryt,” said Joe Wiley, Amryt’s chief executive officer. “Amryt has grown significantly in the past six years and our success to date is due to the phenomenal commitment and drive of the Amryt team. This transaction brings together two teams that have a strong track record of execution and passion for developing therapies that can help improve the lives of patients in need. The addition of Mycapssa, which was recently launched in the U.S., to our commercial product portfolio represents a strong strategic, operational and commercial fit given the significant call-point overlap that exists across our portfolio.”

The companies believe that the combined portfolio could lead to $1 billion in peak revenues.

Amryt’s portfolio includes Lojuxta/Juxtapid (lomitapide) to decrease cholesterol in adults with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH) and Myalept/Myalepta (metreleptin) for lipodystrophy. Its pipeline products include Oleogel-S10 (AP101), its lead development candidate for epidermolysis bullosa, a rare genetic skin disorder; and AP103, a gene therapy for recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, a subset of epidermolysis bullosa.

Chiasma’s sole marketed product is Mycapssa (octreotide) for long-term maintenance treatment for acromegaly. The company’s technology platform is Transient Permeability Enhancer (TPE), which converts chosen peptide-based injectables into oral formulations; in other words, a way of transforming injectable drugs into oral formulations.

Chiasma also reported its first-quarter financials today, noting net product revenue for Mycapssa of $1.9 million. It has also recently submitted an Investigational New Drug (IND) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a Phase I relative bioavailability study followed by a single Phase III trial of Mycapssa in patients with carcinoid syndrome associated with NET. The company had $115 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities at the end of the quarter.

Chiasma’s chief executive officer, Raj Kannan, stated, “While we continue to experience customer access challenges related to COVID-19, we are pleased with the launch progress we made in the first quarter and it reiterates our intent of making Mycapssa the new standard of pharmacological care. During the quarter we saw an increase in launch momentum as we continued to expand payor coverage for Mycapssa. Additionally, we submitted an IND to begin the process of expanding the potential benefits of Mycapssa in patients with carcinoid syndrome. Importantly, we believe the merger with Amryt represents a transformational moment in unlocking and accelerating the potential value of Chiasma efficiently for both our patients and for our shareholders.”

The companies believe that by combining the sales forces for Myalept/Myalepta and Mycapssa, they will be able to drive Mycapssa adoption and continue revenue growth for Myalept/Myalepta. Amryt believes Mycapssa will be able to fill a need for oral carcinoid symptoms associated with NET. Injectable ocreotide is approved and in use for NET and SSA utilization in NET is expected to make $1.3 billion in U.S. and $2.4 billion globally by 2028.

Wiley added, “This deal further solidifies our position as a global leader in treating rare and orphan conditions. … With the addition of NET, our combined pipeline will have four product candidates in late clinical states as well as our exciting pre-clinical gene therapy asset, AP103 in dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa. The proposed transaction will leverage our track record of successful integration and significantly enhance our future growth plans in highly attractive markets globally.”