Bristol-Myers Squibb completes acquisition of Amira Pharmaceuticals

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company announced that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of privately held Amira Pharmaceuticals Inc, a small-molecule pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and early development of new drugs to treat inflammatory and fibrotic diseases. As a result of the transaction, Amira has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bristol-Myers Squibb.

The acquisition of Amira Pharmaceuticals’ fibrosis program, including the lead asset AM152, an orally available lysophosphatidic acid 1 (LPA1) receptor antagonist which has completed phase 1 clinical studies and is now poised for phase 2a proof-of-confidence studies for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and systemic Sclerosis (SSc), or scleroderma, marks Bristol-Myers Squibb’s entrance into fibrotic diseases, an area of high unmet medical need which is complementary to its current therapeutic areas of focus. Bristol-Myers Squibb also has obtained Amira’s preclinical autotaxin program, which may be useful in the treatment of neuropathic pain and cancer metastases.