Shire Acquires Meritage Pharma
March 3, 2015
​Shire Pharmaceuticals acquired Meritage Pharma last week for $70 million, with another $175 million dependent on Meritage meeting milestones down the road.
In September of last year, Meritage announced positive results of their late-stage results of OBS.
OBS is an oral drug for the treatment of a rare esophageal condition, called eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), which is the inflammation of the esophagus. OBS has already been granted orphan drug status by the FDA due to EoE being a rare disease with limited treatment options for patients.
Shire is exercising rights to acquire the OBS developer that was obtained as part of its acquisition of ViroPharma last year. ViroPharma held an option to buy Meritage after a strategic collaboration struck in 2011 to fuel Phase II studies of OBS.
Read about the acquisition in the news: