WASHINGTON — Gaithersburg, Maryland-based Emergent BioSolutions will acquire Adapt Pharma, the company that makes opioid overdose reversal nasal spray Narcan, for $735 million.
Narcan is the only opioid reversal drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The nasal spray version of naxolone costs $150 for two doses.
Emergent will pay $635 million in cash and stock up front to acquire the company, and up to $100 million more based on sales milestones through 2022.
In addition to Narcan, Emergent will gain Adapt Pharma’s pipeline of new treatments and delivery options being developed to treat opioid overdoses.
About 50 Adapt Pharma employees in the U.S., Canada and Ireland will join the Gaithersburg company’s payroll.
“The acquisition of Adapt Pharma, and with it the Narcan Nasal Spray, is directly in line with our mission — to protect and enhance life,” said Emergent CEO Daniel Abdun-Nabi.
Emergent BioSolutions provides Anthrax vaccines to the federal government’s stockpile, and has government contracts to continue developing next-generation vaccines.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 42,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2016 due to opioid overdose. The U.S. government has declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency.
Emergent BioSolutions expects the acquisition to add between $200 million to $220 million to its 2019 revenue and to add to profits beginning next year.
Earlier this month, Emergent BioSolutions announced its planned acquisition of specialty vaccine company PaxVax for $270 million. Its vaccines include the only oral vaccine approved by the FDA for the prevention of typhoid fever and the only FDA-licensed vaccine for the prevention of cholera.
