A small biotech's collapse has handed Teva a product sitting weeks away from a U.S. regulatory verdict. Teva Pharmaceuticals International, the group's Swiss unit, closed its purchase of BioXcel Therapeutics' neuroscience assets through a court-supervised bankruptcy sale, paying $57.5 million upfront with as much as $67.5 million more tied to approval timing and future sales, the company said on Tuesday, adding that the pending product would be the first treatment for this condition that patients could take at home. A hospital version of the same dexmedetomidine film, sold as IGALMI, is already approved and came with the deal.
The seller will not be around to see the outcome of its own filing. The company entered Chapter 11 in Delaware in late August with Teva already lined up as the stalking horse bidder, an arrangement that set a floor price for the auction that followed, BioXcel said at the time, while the FDA's target date for a decision on the home-use application falls in November, Teva said when it announced its bid. That leaves the buyer, not the seller, waiting on the agency.
For Teva, the deal is modest next to its recent shopping. The Tel Aviv company, founded in 1901 and best known for generic medicines, has spent three years tilting its portfolio toward branded drugs under a plan it calls Pivot to Growth. In April, Teva said it would buy Emalex Biosciences for $700 million at closing. That deal brought in ecopipam, a Tourette syndrome treatment.