Allergan to acquire Naurex and with it rapastinel (GLYX 13) and NRX 1074 for depression

Allergan plc and Naurex Inc.announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Allergan will acquire Naurex in an all-cash transaction. Under the terms of the agreement, Allergan will acquire Naurex for a $560 million upfront payment net of cash acquired, $460 million of which is payable upon the closing of the acquisition and $100 million of which is payable by January of 2016 (or upon the closing if the closing has not occurred by such time), as well as potential R&D success-based and sales-threshold milestone payments. The acquisition will strengthen Allergan's long-term growth profile with the addition of Naurex's lead development product rapastinel (GLYX-13), a once-weekly intravenous Phase III-ready molecule that has demonstrated rapid, robust and sustained efficacy in multiple Phase II clinical studies in depression. The acquisition will also add Naurex's development product NRX-1074, a next-generation drug candidate, the intravenous form of which has shown rapid and robust antidepressant efficacy in an initial single-dose Phase 2 study. NRX-1074 is also an orally bioavailable drug candidate which is in Phase 1 studies. Rapastinel and NRX-1074 are both targeted modulators of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor. Both therapies have been found to be well-tolerated in all studies to date, with no drug-related serious adverse events or any of the dissociative side effects typically seen with NMDA antagonists.