AbbVie expands its IBD prospects with $250M Celsius deal

2024-06-27

Hunting another immunology drug, AbbVie announced Thursday it’s paying $250 million to acquire Celsius Therapeutics, which is developing an antibody for inflammatory bowel disease.

It’s the latest in a series of deals by the pharmaceutical giant to shore up its pipeline of inflammatory drugs, two weeks after it said it would license an antibody from FutureGen Biopharmaceutical, and months after a March announcement it would acquire Landos Biopharma.

Celsius, which launched in 2018, has completed a Phase 1 study for its lead program, dubbed CEL383. The experimental drug inhibits a protein coding gene called TREM1, which intensifies an inflammatory response that leads to the development of IBD.

“Given the potential relevance of TREM1 as a key driver of inflammation and pathology in IBD and other conditions, we are eager to advance the development of CEL383 with a goal of helping more patients with IBD achieve remission,” Kori Wallace, AbbVie’s global head of immunology clinical development, said in a statement.

Celsius had previously inked an agreement with Johnson & Johnson to find predictive biomarkers in a clinical trial of patients with ulcerative colitis.

The young biotechnology company, which raised $65 million in its Series A round, was looking for other targets in its approach to IBD, but had not disclosed any other programs in its pipeline by the time AbbVie announced its acquisition.

“We look forward to the further development of this promising program, which we hope will offer a new approach to the treatment of IBD,” Tariq Kassum, Celsius’ CEO, said in a statement.

Immunology drugmakers have been in the spotlight of late, drawing investor interest in both the private and public markets. AbbVie is one of several major pharma companies to buy an immune drugmaker recently, following in the footsteps of Roche’s $7.1 billion deal to buy a Roivant subsidiary, and Takeda’s $4 billion licensing of a psoriasis treatment from Nimbus Therapeutics. Startups such as Mirador Therapeutics and Santa Ana Bio have drawn hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment.

Alumis, a biotech developing medicines for conditions such as lupus and plaque psoriasis, is set for an initial public offering this week. Some of the largest IPOs to hit Wall Street since the beginning of 2023 involved biotechs with clinical-stage drugs for autoimmune disorders, such as Acelyrin and Apogee Therapeutics.

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