Horizon scoops up Hyperion and its rare disease portfolio for $1.1B

Horizon Pharma CEO Timothy Walbert

Ireland-based Horizon Pharma ($HZNP) snatched up Hyperion Therapeutics ($HPTX) for $1.1 billion to get its hands on the company's rare disease meds, diversifying its portfolio and expanding its footprint in the orphan drug market.

Horizon is shelling out $46 per share for the San Francisco, CA-based company, a 7.6% premium to Hyperion's Friday closing price. The deal brings along Ravicti and Buphenyl, Hyperion's drugs for urea cycle disorders, a group of inherited metabolic diseases that affects 2,100 people in the U.S., Reuters reports.

Hyperion boasts promising numbers for Ravicti and Buphenyl, with Ravicti bringing in $95.4 million in net sales last year--up from $31.2 million in 2013. Buphenyl sales grew to $18.5 million in 2014, compared with $11.4 million in 2013, according to the company's latest 10-K filing.

Adding new drugs to its lineup could help Horizon as it struggles with pricing pushback over its osteoarthritis meds, Duexis and Vimovo. Last year, Express Scripts ($ESRX) and CVS Health ($CVS) kicked the drugs off their formularies, a move that stood to take a 20% to 30% bite out of prescriptions and deliver a blow to sales.

Already approved by both companies' boards, the Hyperion acquisition is expected to add $100 million to Horizon's adjusted EBITDA in 2016, including cost savings of more than $50 million, Horizon CEO Timothy Walbert said in a statement.

Horizon's latest deal comes a little more than a year after the company bought out Vidara Therapeutics for $660 million, shifting its domicile to tax-friendly Ireland from Illinois. Horizon came equipped with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis treatments Duexis, Vimovo, Rayos and Lodotra, while Vidara brought its one product to the table, immune stimulator Actimmune.

- read the release
- here's the Reuters story
- get Hyperion's 10-K filing

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