Astel­las swoops in on a mid-stage drug for hot flash­es in $860M biotech buy­out deal

Three months af­ter the Bel­gian biotech Oge­da re­port­ed solid­ly pos­i­tive da­ta from a Phase IIa study of its ex­per­i­men­tal, non-hor­mon­al ther­a­py for hot flash­es re­lat­ed to menopause, the com­pa­ny is be­ing bought out with a hefty cash pay­ment of €500 mil­lion along with a com­mit­ment for €300 mil­lion more in mile­stones (or about $860 mil­lion to­tal).

Japan’s Astel­las has swooped in to make the buy­out, ob­vi­ous­ly im­pressed with da­ta that showed a 93% re­duc­tion in hot flash­es for the fe­zo­line­tant group at week 12 com­pared to 54% on place­bo. The re­duc­tion in sever­i­ty of hot flash­es at week 12 was 70% for the drug arm and 23% in the place­bo group.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER