Spe­cial­ty phar­ma play­er snaps up Aca­cia and its 2 drugs for a handy $100M

When Cam­bridge, UK-based Aca­cia Phar­ma fi­nal­ly scored an FDA ap­proval for its res­cue treat­ment of post­op­er­a­tive nau­sea and vom­it­ing, it was the cul­mi­na­tion of a rocky jour­ney that spanned two pre­vi­ous re­jec­tions.

But as it turned out, the re­al chal­lenge was just start­ing.

Launch­ing in the mid­dle of a rag­ing pan­dem­ic — the OK came in Feb­ru­ary 2020 and Barhem­sys en­tered the mar­ket a few months lat­er — proved too tough for the lit­tle biotech. In the first six months of 2021, Aca­cia re­port­ed just $400,000 in net rev­enue, and that’s in­clud­ing a sec­ond prod­uct, By­fa­vo.

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