Asahi Kasei Offers to Buy Calliditas for $1.1 Billion

Rare Daily Staff

Japanese pharma Asahi Kasei is expanding its rare disease business with an offer to acquire Swedish biotech Calliditas Therapeutics for $1.1 billion in cash, a premium of 83 percent to the closing price of its Swedish shares and 74 percent to the closing price of its ADS, prior to the offer.

Asahi says the deal will accelerate its transformation into a global specialty pharmaceutical business by unlocking the potential of existing business operations and human resources of Calliditas.  Calliditas’ Tarpeyo is highly complementary to Asahi Kasei’s existing geographic and therapeutic areas. Tarpeyo treats the rare disease IgA nephropathy, currently the only fully approved product shown to reduce the loss of kidney function in adults with primary immunoglobulin A nephropathy who are at risk for disease progression.

The deal also solidifies Asahi’s presence in the U.S. market by expanding its in-house sales structure for renal and autoimmune disease fields, establishes a presence in Europe, initially focused on R&D activities, and expands its pipeline.

“Calliditas has infrastructure in a number of markets where Asahi Kasei currently has limited resources, including Sweden,” the company said in a statement.

The board of directors of Calliditas has unanimously recommended that its shareholders accept the public tender offer by Asahi Kasei, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2023, conditional to regulatory and government conditions.

With Asahi Kasei as its new strategic owner, Calliditas’ Board says the company can realize the benefits of being part of a larger platform and the potential opportunity to accelerate its revenue growth trajectory as well as pipeline development.