Date: 2016-12-10
Type of information: Company acquisition
Acquired company: Encore Vision (USA - TX)
Acquiring company: Novartis (Switzerland)
Amount: undisclosed
Terms: • On December 20, 2016, Novartis announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement for the acquisition of Encore Vision, a privately-held company focused on the development of a novel treatment in presbyopia.The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval. The financial details of this transaction are not disclosed.
Details: The transaction aims to confirm Novartis' leadership in ophthalmology. This acquisition adds a first-in-class disease modifying topical treatment for presbyopia patients to the Novartis ophthalmology pipeline. Encore Vision's lead investigational product, EV06, is a first-in-class topical treatment. In a phase I/II masked, placebo-controlled proof of concept study, 50 patients were treated daily for 90 days with topical EV06 and 25 patients with placebo. EV06 showed a statistical significant difference to placebo in distant corrected near vision at all time points measured (from day 8); at day 90, 82% of participants treated with EV06 had 20/40 near vision (or 0.30 LogMAR) versus 48% in the placebo group. Near vision of 20/40 allows for majority of near vision tasks in most people. In 2016, Novartis combined its retina medicines business with the Alcon pharmaceuticals business, now operating as one Ophthalmology franchise under Novartis Pharmaceuticals.
Related: Ophtalmological diseases
