India's Sun Pharma acquires U.S based Concert for $576 million

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, India's largest drugmaker, said it will acquire U.S.-based Concert Pharmaceuticals for $576 million in cash to gain access to its experimental drug for treating patchy baldness. The deal is the Indian drugmaker's biggest since its $3.2 billion acquisition of generic drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd in 2014, according to Refinitiv data. Sun Pharma offered Concert $8 per share, representing a premium of 16% to the stock's last close. Shares of the Massachusetts-based biopharma were trading up 19.4% at $8.24 in early trading.

Concert stockholders will also receive a contingent value right, based on sales milestones, entitling them to an additional amount of up to $3.50 per share of common stock in cash. The deal, which was approved by both the companies' boards, is expected to close in the first quarter this year. Concert's lead candidate, deuruxolitinib, is currently being evaluated in a late-stage study as a treatment for autoimmune condition alopecia areata, which results in patchy hair loss and affects more than 300,000 people in the United States each year. Sun Pharma said its immediate focus would be to follow Concert's plan to submit a marketing application for its lead candidate to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the first half of the year.