The Bristol-Myers Squibb Company formally finalizes the acquisition of Amira Pharmaceuticals today.
Amira Pharmaceuticals, Inc. had been a privately held company leading up to BMS’s acquisition of the company.
Amira is noted as a small-molecule pharmaceutical company with an emphasis on the discovery and early development of drugs such as treatment of inflammatory and fibrotic diseases.
In a company statement issued during the initial acquisition announcement on July 21st, 2011, BMS released the following statement, “As part of the continued execution of our focused BioPharma strategy, Bristol-Myers Squibb has identified fibrotic diseases as an area of high unmet medical need that complements our research efforts in several of our therapeutic areas,” said Elliott Sigal, executive vice president, chief scientific officer and president, Research and Development, Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Sigal also noted, “The acquisition of Amira Pharmaceuticals represents the latest example of our String of Pearls strategy, a highly targeted set of transactions designed to enrich our innovative pipeline with potential medicines to help patients in need.”
One item of particular interest to BMS was Amira’s AM152 which is categorized as an orally available lysophosphatidic acid 1 (LPA1) receptor antagonist which had already completed Phrase I clinical studies and is slated for Phase IIa ‘proof-of-confidence’ studies for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and systemic Sclerosis (SSc), or scleroderma.
As a result of BMS’s completed acquisition of Amira, BMS now is enabled to enter the fibrotic diseases market.
BMS initially announced their intent to acquire Amiraon July 21, 2011 as aforementioned, and has succeeded in formal acquisition of the company.
