April 30 (Reuters) – Danish drugmaker LEO Pharma said on Thursday it had agreed to buy U.S. drug developer Replay for $50 million upfront, adding an experimental treatment platform for rare genetic skin diseases to its dermatology business.
The deal includes milestone payments and tiered single-digit royalties, though the company did not disclose the size of the milestones.
Replay’s virus design and manufacturing team would join LEO Pharma dermatology portfolio as part of the acquisition, the company added.
“On top of all the pipelines that we have now, we’re entering the promise of gene therapy,” CEO Christophe Bourdon told Reuters.
Replay is developing an experimental gene therapy applied to the skin as a gel, using a modified herpes virus to carry genetic material into skin cells.
Its lead candidate targets dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, a rare blistering disease, and remains in preclinical testing.
The deal pushes LEO Pharma deeper into rare skin diseases, building on its Boehringer Ingelheim partnership for Spevigo and a DEBRA research tie-up targeting epidermolysis bullosa, a rare condition that leaves skin fragile and easily blistered.
“There is a preclinical proof of concept that makes us believe that we can really unfold it into several diseases,” Chief Scientific Officer Jacob Pontoppidan Thyssen told Reuters.
The purchase comes as the company prepares for a possible stock-market listing, making growth deals more important as it tries to show investors where future sales could come from.
After a leadership and organizational reshuffle four years ago, LEO Pharma has been sharpening its focus, but stronger results have given it more room to do deals that add to its skin-disease business.
(Reporting by Jesus Calero in Gdansk and Vera Dvorakova in Copenhagen; Editing by Matt Scuffham)
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