Boehringer Ingelheim announced on July 29 that it will buy Nerio Therapeutics for $1.3 billion. With the purchase of Nerio Therapeutics, Boehringer Ingelheim is also picking up a preclinical immune checkpoint inhibitor program that it hopes will become the “centerpiece” of its immune-oncology portfolio.
Nerio Therapeutics is a biotechnology company focused on the life sciences sector. It was founded in 2019 and is based in La Jolla, California. Nerio has been working on small molecules that inhibit protein tyrosine phosphatases N1 and N2 (PTPN1 and PTPN2). PTPN1 and PTPN2 regulate cytokine signaling and T cell receptor signaling, with preclinical research suggesting inhibiting them can enhance anti-tumor activity.
Boehringer Ingelheim is a German pharmaceutical company focusing on the therapeutic areas of cardiovascular disease, respiratory diseases, diseases of the central nervous system, metabolic diseases, virological diseases and oncology.
Boehringer hopes that Nerio’s preclinical program will be used as both a monotherapy and in combination with the company’s in-house pipeline of oncology therapies to one day treat cancer patients who aren’t benefiting from the current range of approved checkpoint inhibitors.
“Securing the rights to Nerio Therapeutics’ novel checkpoint inhibitors creates a broad panel of exciting new cancer treatment combination opportunities. This brings us a major step closer to our vision of transforming the lives of people living with cancer,” Paola Casarosa, a member of the board of managing directors at Boehringer Ingelheim, said in a statement.
According to data captured in the LevinPro HC database, this acquisition represents the 92nd Biotechnology transaction to be reported in 2024, as well as the 11th largest deal announced in the sector so far this year. There were 161 Biotechnology deals announced during 2023, and 144 announced during 2022.
