The Laval biopharmaceutical Bellus Santé announced on Tuesday its sale to the British giant GSK, a transaction valued at 2 billion US.
GSK is offering US$14.75 per share to buy Bellus, which conducts advanced research to treat chronic cough.
On NASDAQ, Bellus shares — which also trade in Toronto — closed Monday’s session up 3% at $7.26.
It is estimated that 28 million patients suffer from chronic cough, of which 10 million patients worldwide and 6 million patients in the United States and the European Union have suffered from intractable chronic cough for more than one year.
Bellus’ lead product — camlipixant — is being developed to treat chronic refractory cough, ie cough that has persisted for more than eight weeks despite appropriate treatment.
Leaders point out that there are still no approved drugs for refractory chronic cough in the United States and the European Union.
Bellus boss Roberto Bellini says the deal with GSK recognizes the value of the product the company has developed so far. “GSK is the ideal company to rapidly deliver camlipixant to the millions of chronic intractable cough sufferers around the world,” it said in a statement.
Roberto Bellini is the son of entrepreneur Francesco Bellini, the doctor behind the great success of BioChem Pharma in the 90s.
Francesco Bellini had co-founded BioChem Pharma in 1986 before it was sold to Shire for 6 billion in 2001. He then turned to Neurochem, which was trying to develop a drug against Alzheimer’s. After a good start, Neurochem took a nosedive on the stock market in 2007 after US authorities judged the results obtained insufficient to treat Alzheimer’s. Neurochem subsequently changed its name to Bellus Health.