Pfizer Agrees To Buy FoldRx in Rare-Disease Treatment Expansion Effort

Pfizer Inc. agreed to buy closely held FoldRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. as it looks to expand into medicines for rare disorders.

FoldRx, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is focused on developing treatments for conditions caused by the improper folding of proteins, Pfizer said today in a statement. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

The deal fits with Pfizer’s strategy of focusing on medicines for niche diseases, Geno Germano, head of Pfizer’s specialty care unit, said in a telephone interview. Pfizer set up a research division in June focused on developing medicines for orphan diseases, classified as conditions affecting less than 200,000 people. More than 30 million Americans have one of 6,000 orphan diseases, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders.

“Within our research organization we established a specific research unit focused on rare disorders and this fits nicely into that area of focus,” Germano said today. “Rare diseases are an aspect of our portfolio that we think is very attractive, and we are eager to see and continue development.”

Pfizer, the world’s biggest drugmaker, contacted FoldRx eight weeks ago after one of its researchers saw a scientific poster presented by the company, Richard Labaudiniere, FoldRx’s chief executive officer, said in a telephone interview. He said the company was founded in 2004 from a technology project developed at the Scripps Research Institute.

Lipitor Copies

Pfizer is looking to make acquisitions to help offset some of the revenue it will start losing next year when generic copies enter the market of its Lipitor cholesterol pill, the world’s top-selling medicine with $11.4 billion in 2009 sales. Pfizer Chief Financial Officer Frank D’Amelio said in August that the drugmaker is looking for “bolt-on transactions” worth as much as “several billion” dollars.

Pfizer, based in New York, rose 37 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $16.28 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

FoldRx’s most advanced drug, tafamidis meglumine, is in the final stages of testing required to get regulatory approval in the U.S. to treat transthyretin amyloid polyneuropathy, a fatal disorder of the nervous system that affects about 8,000 people worldwide, Labaudiniere said. The condition starts in most patients around age 40 and kills them within 10 years, he said. The company had filed for approval of the treatment in Europe.

In Development

FoldRx is also working on drugs in earlier stages of testing for Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, cystic fibrosis, and a rare heart condition called transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy. All of its research is focused on developing chemical compounds, rather than injectable biologics.

Treatments designated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as orphan medicines get an additional seven years of market exclusivity in addition to the standard 20 years of patent protection, according to the FDA website.

Pfizer’s financial adviser on the acquisition was Jefferies & Co. and its legal adviser was Ropes & Gray LLP. Goldman, Sachs & Co. served as FoldRx’s financial adviser, while Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo P.C., provided legal advice.

To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Shannon Pettypiece at spettypiece@bloomberg.net.

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