Building an orphan pipeline, Horizon Pharma bags PhIII-ready rare disease drug in $145M buyout
Eight months after a little-known subsidiary group named River Vision Development Corp. won a breakthrough therapy designation for its lead drug for a rare eye disease, Horizon Pharma $HZNP has swooped in to pluck its sole drug asset in a buyout deal powered with a $145 million upfront.
The company is a subsidiary of Narrow River, a Rockefeller Center-based biotech which was set up by biotech veteran David Madden, the chairman at Dicerna and a board member of Navitor. Madden got River Vision started with a $17 million round backed by GSK’s SR One along with Lundbeckfond in 2012. Then he followed up with a licensing deal with Roche on teprotumumab (RV001), which had been partnered with Genmab, which had discovered the treatment.
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.