Ipsen is on a roll this week, scooping up its second biotech in three days in order to firm up its pipeline with promising clinical-stage candidates.
This morning’s deal sees the French biopharma paying 200 million euros ($228 million) upfront for Switzerland-based Memo Therapeutics. The prize is potravitug, a phase 2-stage monoclonal antibody that the biotech has aimed at BK polyomavirus.
Potravitug was granted fast-track designation from the FDA back in 2023 to treat BK polyomavirus-associated nephropathy, a serious complication for patients who have received a kidney transplant—and one that can lead to transplant failure. There are currently no approved treatments for kidney transplant recipients facing BKPyV infection.
Memo isn’t a one-trick pony: Beyond potravitug, the biotech has been working on its so-called Dropzylla antibody engine as well as a $328 million pact with CSL earlier this year to collaborate on Memo’s recombinant polyclonal immunoglobulin tech.
But Ipsen only has eyes for potravitug. Memo’s other assets and related employees will instead be transferred to a newly incorporated company called Memorises Bio, which will still be owned by Memo’s shareholders.
Beyond the upfront fee, Ipsen is also eligible to pay development, regulatory approval and sales-based milestones that could bring the deal’s total value to 700 euros ($798 million), according to a July 1 release.
Memo CEO Erik van den Berg said the Swiss company was “thrilled to have attracted Ipsen to take this important medicine forward.”
“With its deep expertise in developing and commercializing medicines for rare diseases, Ipsen can ensure that this breakthrough asset reaches its full potential to deliver a life changing difference for thousands of kidney transplant patients with BKPyV infection,” van den Berg added.
The acquisition follows Memo’s trip to the European Renal Association Congress last month, where the biotech showcased more data from a phase 2 study of potravitug that demonstrated a sustained reduction in viral load and resolution of biopsy-proven BKPyV-associated nephropathy. Ipsen said this morning that the “totality of evidence” from that study “supports initiation of [a] pivotal phase 2/3 trial later this year.”
Ipsen’s head of R&D, Christelle Huguet, Ph.D., said in this morning’s release that potravitug gives the French company “the opportunity to add a promising first-in-class asset to our rare disease pipeline and address the significant clinical consequences of BK virus–associated nephropathy in kidney transplant recipients, where current standards of care can compromise transplant success and graft outcomes.”
Buying Memo is the latest chapter in Ipsen’s ongoing push to bulk out its pipeline across its three priority areas of rare disease, oncology and neuroscience. It follows Ipsen’s decision on Monday to pay $450 million upfront to buy U.S.-based Kartos Therapeutics for a phase 3-stage blood cancer drug designed to improve on Jakafi treatment.
Ipsen’s rare disease pipeline suffered a setback in December 2025 when its oral small molecule fidrisertib failed to reduce the progression of a genetic disease that gradually turns tendons and ligaments into bone, prompting the pharma to stop the study early. The company’s rare disease offering is led by Iqirvo, an approved oral medication for a chronic autoimmune liver disease called primary biliary cholangitis.
In an interview in May for Fierce’s The Top Line podcast, Huguet explained how Ipsen’s current business development strategy is based on the assumption that the “best innovation comes mostly from outside” the company.
“We can source innovation and bring to the table our strengths and know-how that is in translational, clinical, regulatory and commercial,” Huguet added. “So when I think about sourcing innovation, I think Ipsen is the accelerator.”