Arbor acquiring XenoPort

Specialty pharma Arbor Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Atlanta, Ga.) is acquiring XenoPort Inc. (NASDAQ:XNPT) for $7.03 per share, or about $467 million. The deal will give Arbor rights to Horizant gabapentin enacarbil, which is approved in the U.S. to treat restless legs syndrome (RLS) and to manage postherpetic neuralgia. XenoPort reported $39.5 million in 2015 sales of the drug.

The acquisition price is a 60% premium to XenoPort's close of $4.40 on Friday, before the deal was announced. It also is a slight premium to the biotech's close of $6.73 on Sept. 14, 2015, before XenoPort reported troubling adverse event data from a Phase II trial in which then-lead clinical candidate XP23829 met its primary endpoint (see BioCentury Extra, Sept. 15, 2015). ...