Pfizer Is Buying a Big Stake in This Company

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. announced that it is buying a stake in French gene company Vivet Therapeutics.

The deal could be worth as much as $636 million and Pfizer will be paying $51 million up front to take a 15% stake in the Paris-based company.

So why would Pfizer want a stake of Vivet?

Vivet is working on a drug called VTX-801 that is intended to treat Wilson disease, a rare and possibly fatal condition in which excess copper collects in the body’s liver and other organs. The levels can get to a dangerous fatal zone.

“VTX-801 could provide a potentially transformative therapeutic option for patients with Wilson disease by directly addressing the underlying cause of the disease—the inability to excrete copper owing to a mutation in the gene that codes for that function,” said Seng Cheng, the senior vice president and chief scientific officer of Pfizer’s Rare Disease Research Unit.

Pfizer may pay up to $636 million “subject to certain clinical, regulatory, and commercial milestones,” and may buy the rest of Vivet “following the company’s delivery of certain data from the Phase I/II clinical trial for VTX-801.”

“The potential of VTX-801 has already been demonstrated in preclinical models and our partnership with Pfizer will help accelerate development of VTX-801 and expand our other innovative technologies,” said Vivet co-founder and chief scientific officer Gloria Gonzalez-Aseguinolaza.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) and have not been compensated for this article.