Neurona takeout adds to UCB’s epilepsy portfolio: Deals Report

A deal by UCB late Friday to acquire venture-backed Neurona will add another anticonvulsive treatment to the Belgian pharma’s portfolio, building on a long history of developing and selling therapies for the disease.

UCB S.A. (Euronext:UCB) said it would pay $650 million to purchase Neurona Therapeutics Inc., a San Francisco Bay Area-based company whose lead asset, NRTX-1001, is a regenerative cell therapy comprising inhibitory GABAergic interneurons that secrete GABA. It is in a Phase I/II trial to treat mesial temporal lobe epilepsy; Neurona had been hoping to start a Phase III study this year...