UCB bags a ri­val to Soliris in $2.1B buy­out deal — but will an in­creas­ing­ly vig­i­lant FTC sign off?

UCB is buy­ing out Ra Phar­ma $RARX, an­nounc­ing an ac­qui­si­tion deal that rings up at $48 a share, or $2.1 bil­lion net of cash, and puts them toe-to-toe with Alex­ion on a clin­i­cal show­down.

Ra shares closed at $22.70 on Wednes­day.

There’s a small pipeline in play at Ra, but UCB is go­ing for the lead drug — a C5 in­hibitor called zilu­coplan in Phase III for myas­the­nia gravis (MG) look­ing to play ri­val to Alex­ion’s Soliris. Soliris has the mar­ket ad­van­tage, though, with a much ear­li­er ap­proval in MG in late 2017 that UCB feels con­fi­dent in chal­leng­ing.

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