Exclusive: SFJ sells US rights for Brilinta reversal agent to SERB Pharma

Having wrangled control of a blood thinner reversal agent, SFJ Pharma has found a buyer for the drug.

SERB Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharma that vastly expanded its portfolio through several mergers in recent years, is picking up US rights to bentracimab, which is designed to reverse the anti-coagulating effects of AstraZeneca’s Brilinta (ticagrelor). PhaseBio originally licensed the drug from AstraZeneca’s former biologics arm MedImmune, and SFJ hopped aboard midway with development funding. But when PhaseBio sounded an alarm bell regarding the company’s finances, SFJ demanded rights to the drug — and won the legal battle earlier this year. In the process, PhaseBio also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Anthony Higham, CEO of SERB, said his company has been involved in deal talks around bentracimab for over a year, as PhaseBio started looking for deals in 2022. He declined to disclose financial terms of the deal or how SERB’s offer compared to Chiesi’s “stalking horse bid” from October 2022, consisting of $40 million upfront and $60 million in milestones.

With a BLA filing slated for the third quarter of this year, SERB hopes to start commercializing bentracimab in late 2024 or early 2025, Higham said.

He added that the late-stage drug fits well into SERB’s focus on critical care and rare diseases, particularly with its existing connections in hospitals and cardiology. It also already markets several reversal agents and a suite of antidotes, including drugs that can be used to counter the effects of cyanide, nuclear radiation exposure, anthrax, nerve agents and snake bites.

Thomas Kolaras

Brilinta is one of several drugs prescribed to patients who have suffered a heart attack or stroke or who have acute coronary syndromes or coronary artery disease to lower their risks of dying from heart attack or stroke. SERB estimates around 750,000 patients take the drug annually. However, when these patients need surgery or a bleeding event, the anti-platelet effect of Brilinta becomes dangerous — and doctors must face the dilemma of either pausing the drug and risking certain consequences or continuing and risking other drugs.

“There’s a percentage of a percentage of a percentage, but when it’s required and necessary, it’s an emergency in some of these situations,” said Thomas Kolaras, SERB’s chief commercial officer in the US.

Bentracimab, which has received breakthrough therapy designation at the FDA, will become an important part of SERB’s US portfolio, he added. Kolaras currently runs a core group of about 60 workers in the US, and the plan is to add about 100 people, including both sales and manufacturing, to support the bentracimab launch.

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