Allergan acquires Naurex, divests generics to Teva

Allergan plc (NYSE:AGN) rose $18.77 to $326.98 on Monday after announcing plans to acquire Naurex Inc. (Evanston, Ill.) for $560 million up front and divest its generics business to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE:TEVA) for $40.5 billion in cash and stock. Allergan said it will focus on branded growth products, including pharmaceuticals, medical aesthetics products, biosimilars and its Anda Inc. distribution business.

The Naurex deal gives Allergan rapastinel ( GLYX-13), an intravenous partial agonist of the glycine site of the NMDA receptor that is slated to enter Phase III testing next year as an adjunctive treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD). Rapastinel missed its primary endpoint in a crossover Phase IIb trial last year, but Naurex has said it would design its Phase III trial to account for the longer-than-expected duration of benefit seen in the Phase IIb study (see BioCentury, Dec. 22, 2014). ...