Who else want­ed to buy Iver­ic? Be­fore the $5.9B Astel­las deal, five bio­phar­ma com­pa­nies took a look

Two years ago, as Iver­ic Bio went through late-stage stud­ies of its main ex­per­i­men­tal drug, it be­gan at­tract­ing in­ter­est from po­ten­tial buy­ers. Five com­pa­nies end­ed up in ear­ly-stage dis­cus­sions with the biotech at the time, and oth­ers would ex­press in­ter­est lat­er on, though ul­ti­mate­ly, on­ly one would make a bid to buy it.

Iver­ic end­ed up strik­ing a $5.9 bil­lion deal with Astel­las in April. An SEC fil­ing de­tails the run-up to the takeover, show­ing Astel­las was the sole for­mal bid­der on Iver­ic de­spite draw­ing gen­er­al in­ter­est from a hand­ful of bio­phar­mas. Iver­ic’s key drug, called Zimu­ra or avac­in­cap­tad pe­gol, is up for an FDA ap­proval de­ci­sion in Au­gust to treat ge­o­graph­ic at­ro­phy, a se­ri­ous eye dis­ease that can lead to blind­ing.

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