Japanese drugmaker Asahi Kasei has agreed to buy German biotech Aicuris and its antiviral therapy to tackle an infection that can afflict people who undergo a bone marrow transplant.

日本制药公司旭化成同意收购德国生物技术公司Aicuris及其抗病毒疗法，以应对可能感染接受骨髓移植患者的疾病。

Asahi Kasei

旭化成

has agreed a €780 million (around $920 million) price tag for Wuppertal-based Aicuris, which is hoping for FDA approval of pritelivir, an oral drug targeting herpes simplex virus (HSV), later this year.

同意以7.8亿欧元（约合9.2亿美元）的价格收购位于伍珀塔尔的Aicuris公司，该公司希望今年晚些时候其针对单纯疱疹病毒（HSV）的口服药物pritelivir能获得FDA的批准。

HSV is a major threat to people getting haematopoietic stem cell transplants (HSCT) for blood cancers and other illnesses like aplastic anaemia and inherited immune or metabolic disorders. It is a common infection that lies latent in many people, but can reactivate as a result of the depleted immunity experienced by HSCT patients, which can last for months or even years.

HSV 对于接受造血干细胞移植 (HSCT) 以治疗血癌和其他疾病（如再生障碍性贫血以及遗传性免疫或代谢疾病）的人来说是一个重大威胁。这是一种常见感染，潜伏在许多人身上，但由于 HSCT 患者免疫力下降可能会重新激活，这种情况可能持续数月甚至数年。

Without prophylaxis, HSV disease after HSCT occurs in approximately 70% to 80% of seropositive recipients..

如果没有预防措施，HSCT后HSV疾病会在大约70%到80%的血清学阳性受者中发生。

Pritelivir was shown in a phase 3 trial, reported last October, to achieve significantly superior lesion healing up to 28 days of treatment compared with standard treatment, based on drugs like foscarnet, cidofovir, or imiquimod, which has remained unchanged for decades.

去年十月报道的第三阶段试验显示，与基于膦甲酸、西多福韦或咪喹莫特等药物的标准治疗相比，Pritelivir 在长达28天的治疗中表现出显著更优的病灶愈合效果，而这些标准治疗几十年来未曾改变。

Aicuris has already developed one antiviral used for HSCT patients, MSD-marketed Prevymis (letermovir), which is used to prevent infection with cytomegalovirus (CMV), another type of herpes virus, and has another (AIC468) to prevent and treat BK virus infections in kidney transplant recipients in early clinical development..

Aicuris已经开发了一种用于HSCT患者的抗病毒药物，即由MSD销售的Prevymis（来特莫韦），用于预防巨细胞病毒（CMV）感染，这是另一种疱疹病毒，并且还有一种药物（AIC468）处于早期临床开发阶段，用于预防和治疗肾移植受者中的BK病毒感染。

Asahi Kasei has a long history in the anti-infectives arena, with products like antifungal Cresemba (isavuconazonium sulfate) and aminoglycoside antibiotic Exacin (isepamicin), and said that adding Aicuris will help it reach its goal of driving pharma sales to JPY 300 billion ($1.9 billion) by fiscal 2030..

旭化成在抗感染领域有着悠久的历史，产品包括抗真菌药物克雷森巴（硫酸艾沙康唑）和氨基糖苷类抗生素艾克辛（异帕米星），并表示收购Aicuris将有助于其实现到2030财年推动医药销售额达到3000亿日元（19亿美元）的目标。

The conglomerate – which also operates in the chemicals, electronics, real estate, and energy/infrastructure sectors - said it expects pritelivir to make peak sales of around $400 million 'after the mid-2030s,' with Prevymis taking the total to around $500 million.

该集团还涉足化工、电子、房地产和能源/基础设施领域，集团表示，预计pritelivir在“2030年代中期之后”将达到约4亿美元的销售峰值，而Prevymis将使其总销售额达到约5亿美元。

The acquisition of Aicuris is its second in pharma in the last couple of years, coming after it bought Sweden's

收购Aicuris是该公司过去几年内在制药领域的第二次收购，在此之前，它收购了瑞典的

Calliditas Therapeutics

卡利达塔治疗公司

for $1.1 billion in 2024. It also acquired Danish transplant drug developer Veloxis Pharma for $1.3 billion in 2020, and the Aicuris takeover is being carried out by Veloxis, which is now headquartered in the US.

2024年以11亿美元收购。它还于2020年以13亿美元收购了丹麦移植药物开发商Veloxis Pharma，而Aicuris的收购正由现已总部位于美国的Veloxis进行。

'This acquisition strategically enhances and further integrates the value chain across our priority focus areas of autoimmunity, renal-related diseases, transplantation, and severe infectious diseases,' commented Ken Shinomiya, head of Asahi Kasei's healthcare unit.

“此次收购战略性地增强了我们重点关注的自身免疫、肾脏相关疾病、移植和严重传染病等领域的价值链，并进一步实现了整合，”旭化成医疗保健部门负责人Ken Shinomiya评论道。

'It supports the thoughtful, stepwise expansion of our pipeline while reinforcing our strong and sustainable growth trajectory toward becoming a leading global specialty pharma company.'

“它支持我们管道的深思熟虑、逐步扩展，同时强化我们成为全球领先的专业制药公司的强劲且可持续的增长轨迹。”