Jazz expands in oncology with $935M deal for Chimerix
Jazz Pharmaceuticals is expanding its foothold in cancer drug research, announcing Wednesday it will pay $935 million to buy Chimerix and an experimental medicine under Food and Drug Administration review for treatment of a form of the brain cancer glioma.
Per deal terms, Chimerix investors will receive $8.55 a share, a 72% premium on Tuesday’s closing price. Jazz expects the deal to close in the second quarter of 2025. The deal is all in cash, which Jazz will draw from holdings and investments that amounted to $3 billion at the end of 2024.
If approved, Chimerix’s drug would join five other marketed cancer medicines in Jazz’s portfolio, potentially helping the Dublin-based company diversify revenue away from its biggest seller, the sleep drug Xywav.
Called ONC201 or dordaviprone, the drug has been submitted for accelerated FDA approval in people who have gliomas with a mutation called H3 27M. A small 2014 study suggests that such mutations are common in people under the age of 50 who are diagnosed with glioma.
Chimerix’s submission was supported by testing that found dordaviprone shrank tumors or kept new ones from appearing in 28% of participants in a small trial. The study didn’t compare dodaviprone to placebo or active treatment, but Chimerix has a Phase 3 trial underway that tests it against placebo in people with glioma after radiation therapy. Interim results are expected in the third quarter of 2025.
“If approved, dordaviprone has the potential to rapidly become a standard of care for a rare oncology disease and also contribute durable revenue beginning in the near-term,” said Bruce Cozadd, Jazz chairman and CEO, in a statement.
Chimerix’s progress enrolling that Phase 3 trial may have persuaded the FDA to accept the accelerated approval application, which has priority review and will be decided on in the third quarter, Jefferies analyst Maury Raycroft wrote in a December note to clients. In the indication now under FDA review, Raycroft estimates peak sales of around $550 million.
The transaction will blend two of the longer-lived independent companies in biotechnology. Jazz was founded in 2003 to develop neurology and psychology drugs, while Chimerix started out in 2002 to advance antiviral treatments for smallpox and HIV.
Cozadd recently announced he was retiring from Jazz, which he helped co-found.
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