Allergan Completes Vitae Tender Offer

Allergan completed their tender offer to purchase all outstanding shares of Vitae Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company.

A tender offer occurs when an acquiring company offers to buy another company's stock from shareholders at a specified price. The next step is a merger. Allergan offered to purchase all outstanding shares of Vitae for $21.00 per share, in cash, for a total transaction value of approximately $639 million.

The acquisition strengthens Allergan's dermatology product pipeline, with the addition of VTP-43742, a Phase 2 first-in-class, orally active ROR?t (retinoic acid receptor-related orphan receptor gamma) inhibitor for the potential treatment of psoriasis and other autoimmune disorders. The acquisition also adds VTP-38543, a Phase 2a topical LXRß (Liver X Receptor beta) selective agonist for the potential treatment of atopic dermatitis. VTP-38543 may work by decreasing inflammation in damaged skin tissue and repairing the damaged outer layer of skin. The deal also adds Vitae's Contour^® structure-based drug design platform aimed at discovering product candidates for validated therapeutic targets where biopharmaceutical research and development has traditionally struggled to develop drugs due to challenges related to potency, selectivity and pharmacokinetics.