Pfizer to Acquire FoldRx Pharma

Pfizer has agreed to acquire FoldRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held drug discovery and clinical development company. Pfizer will make an upfront payment as well as milestone payments, but financial terms were not disclosed. The closing is expected later this year.

FoldRx’s portfolio includes clinical and preclinical programs for investigational compounds to treat diseases caused by protein misfolding, which is recognized as an underlying cause in many chronic degenerative diseases. The company’s lead product candidate, tafamidis meglumine, is an oral, disease-modifying therapy for TTR amyloid polyneuropathy (ATTR-PN), a progressively fatal genetic neurodegenerative disease, for which liver transplant is the only treatment option. FoldRx has filed a MAA for tafamidis with the EMA and is currently pursuing a fast track filing in the U.S.

Geno Germano, president and general manager of Pfizer Specialty Care Business Unit said, “This transaction will add another important component to the growing portfolio of innovative in-line and investigational medicines for orphan and rare diseases within Pfizer’s Specialty Care Business, and will complement the current and planned future research and clinical development taking place in Pfizer’s Specialty Care Neuroscience disease area.”