Emergent BioSolutions to buy Adapt Pharma for $735m

Life sciences company Emergent BioSolutions announced plans to acquire Adapt Pharma earlier this week, in what the company said was an effort to combat the public health threat from opioid overdose.

Emergent announced the acquisition of Adapt Pharma and its flagship product Narcan (naloxone HCl) nasal spray on Tuesday, August 28, in a move that will see Emergent pay up to $735 million.

Narcan is the first and only needle-free formulation of naloxone approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Health Canada for the emergency treatment of opioid overdose.

Opioid addiction has become a serious public health concern in the US. Drug overdoses killed 63,632 Americans in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention, with nearly two-thirds of these deaths involving a prescription or illicit opioid.

The US government has declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency.

Emergent will also gain about 50 employees in the US, Canada and Ireland, and the acquisition fits into the company’s mission to “protect and enhance life”.

Daniel Abdun-Nabi, CEO of Emergent, said: “Adding this important life-saving product to our portfolio of preparedness solutions allows us to apply our experience gained from two decades of partnering with the US government to safeguard public health against biological and chemical threats to address the devastating increase in deaths due to opioid overdoses.”

Seamus Mulligan, chairman and CEO of Adapt, added that Adapt will continue to focus on the opioid crisis as part of Emergent’s devices business unit.

This is the second acquisition Emergent has announced this month—in early August, the company revealed plans to acquire PaxVax, a company focused on speciality vaccines that protect against existing and emerging infectious diseases.

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