ARTICLE | Deals
Seeing potential blockbusters, Horizon buys AstraZeneca spinout Viela for more than $3B
Three-year path as stand-alone company culminates in takeout
February 1, 2021 11:14 PM UTC
Horizon’s $3 billion-plus buyout of Viela caps the biotech’s three-year journey as an independent company spun out from AstraZeneca’s MedImmune unit, with an IPO and a drug approval along the path to value creation.
It will be up to Horizon Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ:HZNP) to make good on its expectations that Viela’s marketed drug Uplizna inebilizumab-cdon and two more clinical programs can each top $1 billion in peak sales. The programs fatten Horizon’s pipeline behind marketed products including top sellers Tepezza teprotumumab-trbw and Krystexxa pegloticase...