UCB acquires Ra Pharmaceuticals and with it zilucoplan a proposed treatment for generalised myasthenia gravis

UCB and Ra Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced their entry into a merger agreement pursuant for which UCB will acquire Ra Pharma. Under the terms of the agreement, Ra Pharma shareholders will receive US$ 48 in cash for each Ra Pharma share at closing. The Boards of Directors of both companies have unanimously approved the transaction, which remains subject to approval by Ra Pharma shareholders and to obtaining antitrust clearance and other customary closing conditions. Ra Pharma is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company leveraging a proprietary peptide chemistry platform to develop novel therapeutics for the treatment of serious diseases caused by excessive or uncontrolled activation of the complement system, a critical component of the innate immune system. The company was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Cambridge, MA, U.S. The company�s ExtremeDiversity platform enables the production of synthetic macrocyclic peptides combining the diversity and specificity of antibodies with the pharmacological properties of small molecules. Ra Pharma�s phase III product candidate, zilucoplan, is a once-daily self-administered, subcutaneous peptide inhibitor of C5. In December 2018, Ra Pharma announced positive top-line results from a phase II trial of zilucoplan in patients with generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG), achieving clinically meaningful and statistically significant reductions in both, primary and key secondary endpoints. Zilucoplan is currently being tested in phase III for the treatment of gMG with top-line results expected in early 2021.