Zevra beefs up rare disease portfolio via $91M acquisition of Acer Therapeutics

Zevra Therapeutics is set to buy Acer Therapeutics in a deal worth up to $91 million, which finds the Florida-headquartered biotech with an additional two assets.

As a part of the deal, Zevra will absorb Acer’s urea cycle disorder treatment Olpruva (sodium phenylbutyrate), which secured an FDA approval in December last year, as well as beta-blocker celiprolol, which is in a Phase III vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome trial.

Joshua Schaffer

As for personnel, Joshua Schaffer, CCO and EVP of business development, told Endpoints News: “We are intending to bring over some of the Acer personnel who have complementary expertise and experience to the company.”

The first part of the deal sees Zevra buying Acer for $15 million or in a stock exchange transaction worth $0.61 a share. Up to $76 million is also on the table, based on commercial and regulatory milestones and possible payments linked to preclinical investigations.

Zevra is also taking in Acer’s debt worth $35.3 million, as well as having a $16 million bridge loan facility to commercialize Olpruva. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

Some $10 million of the bridge loan would cover the termination of Acer’s collaboration and license deal with Relief Therapeutics, signed in 2021. It would also bring to an end both companies’ commercialization agreement for Olpruva in Europe.

Before the deal, Zevra had four assets in its portfolio. Its attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drug, Azstarys, was approved by the FDA in 2021. It also has arimoclomol for Niemann Pick Type C (with an NDA resubmission scheduled for Q4) and KP1077 in Phase II for idiopathic hypersomnia and Phase I in narcolepsy.

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