Merck & Co. revives ophthalmology efforts with $3B EyeBio takeout
AcquisitionImmunotherapyClinical Result
Merck & Co. has reached a definitive agreement to buy ophthalmic drugmaker Eyebiotech as it looks to move back in the growing eye-disease therapies market. Speculation that a buyout was imminent was reported Tuesday evening by The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources familiar with the situation.
In the deal announced Wednesday, Merck said it would acquire all outstanding EyeBio shares for up to $3 billion, including an upfront payment of $1.3 billion in cash plus up to an additional $1.7 billion in developmental, regulatory and commercial milestone payments. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter.
The privately-held biotech, which operates in the US and UK, extended its Series A financing last November to a total of $130 million to boost its clinical development programme for retinal therapies.
"The EyeBio team, under the leadership of David Guyer and Tony Adamis, has a strong track record of developing ground-breaking ophthalmology therapies," stated Dean Li, president of Merck Research Laboratories. "By combining our strengths, we aim to advance with rigour and speed the development of their promising pipeline of candidates targeting retinal diseases."
EyeBio’s lead asset is restoret (EYE103) — an intravitreally delivered, tri-specific antibody, which demonstrated positive visual and anatomic outcomes in the Phase Ib/IIa AMARONE study of patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD)AMD) and diabetic macular oedema (DME). Based on those results, restoret is expected to move into a pivotal Phase IIb/III trial of patients with DME in the second half of 2024.
Guyer, who also founded Iveric Bio, which was bought out by Astellas for $5.9 billion last year, mentioned that EyeBio has another treatment in early development that could be complementary to restoret. He and Adamis plan to stay with EyeBio to continue developing the candidate.
Merck exited the ophthalmology segment a decade ago to prioritise key areas such as oncology, immunology and vaccines. However, the drugmaker has recently been chasing deals to reduce dependence on its top-selling immunotherapy drug Keytruda (pembrolizumab), which is set to lose its main patent in 2028.
Bayer and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals' Eylea (aflibercept), with $5.9 billion in sales last year, and Roche's Vabysmo (faricimab-svoa), which reached $2.7 billion in sales in 2023, are already used to treat wet AMDAMD.
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