Boehringer Ingelheim to Acquire Actimis Pharmaceuticals

Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH (Ingelheim, Germany) will acquire Actimis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (San Diego, CA), through a structured buyout in which Boehringer Ingelheim will acquire shares of Actimis depending on the achievement of several successive milestones with Actimis’s leading asthma compound AP768. If AP768, currently in Phase 1 clinical development, is successfully advanced into a Phase 3, Boehringer Ingelheim will own 100% of Actimis’s shares. Upon successful completion of the entire development program, the total deal will be worth $515 million.

The compound AP768 interacts with CRTH21, a novel target for asthma and allergic rhinitis. Previous to the currently ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial, the compound has been shown to have a more effective mechanism of action across multiple available animal models compared to currently marketed leukotriene receptor antagonists.