Ver­tex nabs Vi­a­Cyte's ri­val di­a­betes stem cell treat­ment, ac­quir­ing the biotech for $320M in cash

Less than a week af­ter the FDA lift­ed a hold on Ver­tex’s stem cell ther­a­py for type 1 di­a­betes, the Boston com­pa­ny is buy­ing out a ri­val in an all-cash deal.

Ver­tex an­nounced Mon­day morn­ing it would ac­quire pri­vate biotech Vi­a­Cyte for $320 mil­lion in cash, a move the com­pa­ny says is aimed at boost­ing de­vel­op­ment of its stem cell ther­a­py, VX-880. In ad­di­tion to nab­bing Vi­a­Cyte’s drug can­di­dates, Ver­tex will ac­quire the biotech’s hu­man stem cell lines, man­u­fac­tur­ing fa­cil­i­ties and oth­er rel­e­vant in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty.

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