The Nimble acquisition, which follows the $1.4 billion buy of Aliada Therapeutics in October, will help AbbVie rebuild and cement its long-term growth prospects following the Phase II failure of emraclidine in schizophrenia and in anticipation of market erosion for Skyrizi and Rinvoq, according to Guggenheim Partners analysts.
AbbVie on Friday announced that it will purchase immunology specialist Nimble Therapeutics for $200 million upfront as the pharma lays the groundwork for a comeback following its disappointing schizophrenia stumble.
Aside from the upfront consideration, which still remains subject to “certain customary adjustments,” according to Friday’s announcement, financial details of the deal remain sparse. AbbVie will also be on the hook for “certain interim funding payments” as well as a potential development milestone. The companies also did not reveal when they expect to complete the transaction.
The centerpiece of the acquisition is Nimble’s lead asset, an orally available IL23R inhibitor which is currently in preclinical development for psoriasis. The candidate, a peptide, disrupts IL-23 signaling in order to prevent a damaging inflammatory response, according to the biotech’s website.
Targeting the IL-23 pathway could also hold therapeutic potential not only for psoriasis, but also inflammatory bowel diseases, including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
AbbVie will also gain ownership of Nimble’s other pipeline assets, including an oral C5 blocker being studied for generalized myasthenia gravis and an oral TL1A inhibitor for inflammatory bowel diseases. Both candidates are in early stages of development and have yet to enter the clinic.
AbbVie will also receive Nimble’s proprietary peptide technology—a light-directed synthesis platform capable of producing more than 100 million individual peptide compounds overnight, according to Nimble’s website.
AbbVie plans on combining Nimble’s pipeline and platform with its own “deep clinical and translational expertise in immunology” to develop novel therapies that could “address the significant unmet medical need for people living with autoimmune diseases,” Jonathon Sedgwick, the pharma’s global head of discovery research, said in a statement.
The Nimble purchase comes just weeks after AbbVie in October dropped $1.4 billion to acquire neuro specialist Aliada Therapeutics. That deal will give the pharma an anti-amyloid antibody, dubbed ALIA-1758, currently in Phase I development for Alzheimer’s disease, as well as the biotech’s MODEL platform, which purportedly designs therapeutic molecules with optimal blood-brain barrier transport and functionality. The companies closed the transaction last week.
In a Sunday note to investors, analysts at Guggenheim Partners said that they are “supportive” of AbbVie’s recent deals, which they believe “underscore a strategic commitment by management to sustain long-term growth in immunology and neuroscience.”
The deals could also help AbbVie regain some investor confidence following the disappointing Phase II outcome of emraclidine in schizophrenia last month, a development that Stifel analysts called “outright surprising” at the time. AbbVie’s stocks tanked 12% in the aftermath of the Phase II failure.
“While the emraclidine failure created near-term pressure on the stock and raised concerns about AbbVie’s pipeline depth, we believe these acquisitions demonstrate the company’s intent to continue to diversify their growth outlook,” Guggenheim analysts wrote on Sunday, noting that the deals will also help the pharma soften the blow of the loss of exclusivity and competitive erosion for Skyrizi and Rinvoq in the early 2032s.
“Heading into 2025, AbbVie remains our top large cap pick, with limited clinical or regulatory risks amid broader sector uncertainties, and a relatively clear growth outlook through the end of the decade,” they added.
