Do­va Phar­ma's bet on Ei­sai castoff spells gold as So­bi spends mil­lions to ac­quire it

In 2016, Do­va Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals paid Japan’s Ei­sai a pal­try $5 mil­lion up­front for the rights to the Phase III-ready ava­trom­bopag. The fol­low­ing year, the Durham, North Car­oli­na-based com­pa­ny made its pub­lic de­but with a $75 mil­lion IPO, and by 2018 the drug — brand­ed as Doptelet — se­cured FDA ap­proval. Do­va’s bet paid off hand­some­ly — on Mon­day, the com­pa­ny un­veiled Swedish Or­phan Biovit­rum AB was ac­quir­ing its shares in a deal worth up to a ro­bust $915 mil­lion.

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