Israel's Protalix BioTherapeutics (PLX) has seen its shares skyrocket 415 percent this year. And its success developing a new Gaucher disease therapy appears to have attracted some intense interest from Pfizer.
Reporters at TheMarker say that a delegation from Pfizer visited Protalix's facilities in Israel in anticipation of a development deal and possible buyout. Protalix Chief Executive David Aviezer has already said he expects to have a pact in place by the end of this year. The company has made waves in the Gaucher disease market with a successful late-stage trial of Uplyso. A likely contender to Cerezyme, the drug is being readied for an NDA after Genzyme announced problems with contamination at the facility that makes its extraordinarily expensive drug.
- read the report from Reuters