Paratek Pharmaceuticals is betting that OptiNose’s chronic rhinosinusitis treatment will be a partner to its antibiotic treatment Nuzyra.
Paratek Pharmaceuticals will expand its purview from solely antibiotics to the ear-nose-and-throat space with a deal to buy OptiNose worth up to $330 million.
The agreement, announced Thursday, has Paratek buying all outstanding shares of OptiNose for $9 each, about a 50% premium from the company’s valuation earlier in the week. The purchase also adds contingent value rights of $5 per share contingent on sales milestones. The deal requires both company’s boards to sign off, as well as OptiNose’s shareholders, with an expected closing date in mid-2025.
The big get for Paratek in the deal is OptiNose’s Xhance, a drug/device combination for intranasally treating chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). Xhance got its first FDA clearance for CRS with nasal polyps in 2017, followed by a label expansion in 2024 to CRS without the presence of nasal polyps. The label expansion opened up the market for Xhance 10-fold, according to the sale announcement.
The milestone payments are contingent on taking advantage of that expanded market, with an extra $1 per share if Xhance gets $150 million in net sales in a calendar year before the end of 2028, and an extra $4 per share if sales climb to $225 million before the end of 2029.
Yardley, PA–based OptiNose’s stock rose about 56% Thursday morning to about $9.40 per share. The company will go private once the deal closes.
Paratek touted the buy as a bid to expand its portfolio beyond Nuzyra, a tetracycline antibiotic that the company touts as being effective against antimicrobial-resistant bugs. In particular, Paratek will try to get doctors who are already prescribing Xhance to also consider Nuzyra, targeting ear-nose-and-throat doctors and allergy specialists.
“The Xhance indications represent overlapping call points with Nuzyra, creating opportunities for Paratek to broaden reach and awareness beyond specialists to primary care providers,” Paratek’s CEO Evan Loh said in a statement.
OptiNose had been in need of a partner after warning in a 2023 annual report that “we may never achieve or maintain profitability” and that continued operations depended on expanding Xhance’s commercialization.
