Bloomberg reports this morning that Horizon Therapeutics, which develops combo pain therapies, is closing in on a deal to buy Nitec Pharma AG in Switzerland. Sources tell the business news service that the two venture-backed companies are close to a deal.
Horizon appears to be in pursuit of Lodotra, Nitec's drug for rheumatoid arthritis which uses technology from SkyePharma to release prednisone in RA patients overnight so they feel less stiff in the morning. Nitec was spun off from Merck KGaA in 2004 and has backing from Atlas Venture, Global Life Science Ventures, NGN Capital and TVM Capital.
Scale Venture Partners, Pequot Ventures and Sutter Hill Ventures all backed Horizon, according to Bloomberg. Northbrook, IL-based Horizon's lead drug is a combination of ibuprofen and famotidine.
- here's the report from Bloomberg