Teva acquiring CNS play Auspex for $3.5B

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE:TEVA) is buying neurology play Auspex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ASPX) for $101 per share, or $3.5 billion in cash. The price is a 42% premium to Auspex's Friday close of $70.91, before the deal was announced. Auspex added $29.45 (42%) to $100.36 on Monday.

Auspex plans to submit an NDA to FDA by mid-2015 for Austedo deutetrabenazine ( SD-809) to treat chorea associated with Huntington's disease (HD). The deuterium-substituted analog of tetrabenazine, a vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2; SLC18A2) inhibitor, has Orphan Drug designation for HD as well as Tourette's syndrome in patients aged 16 and younger. In December, SD-809 met the primary endpoint of improving chorea (sudden, rapid uncontrolled movements) associated with HD in the Phase III First-HD trial. Auspex expects top-line data in mid-2015 from the Phase III ARM-TD trial of the candidate to treat tardive dyskinesia (see BioCentury Extra, Dec. 16, 2014). ...