Japanese drugmaker Ono Pharmaceutical is acquiring cancer-focused biotech Deciphera Pharmaceuticals for $2.4 billion, the companies announced Monday morning.
The deal will see Ono acquire all outstanding Deciphera stock at a price of $25.60 per share, representing about a 75% premium over its Friday closing price of $14.65. It’s expected to close in the third quarter, the companies said in a press release. Deciphera’s stock price $DCPH jumped more than 70% in pre-market trading Monday.
Through the buyout, Ono nabs an FDA-approved late-line cancer drug in Qinlock (OK’d for fourth-line gastrointestinal stromal tumors, or GIST), as well as the experimental asset vimseltinib, which succeeded in a Phase 3 study last October for tenosynovial giant cell tumor, a rare joint tumor. Deciphera has said that it expects to file for FDA approval by the end of June.
Deciphera’s early-stage cancer pipeline contains three other kinase inhibitors. The company previously said it expected to launch a dose-expansion Phase 2 cohort this year for the drug farthest along, DCC-3116, and start Phase 1 studies for the other two — DCC-3084 and DCC-3009 — this year.
Ono has prioritized oncology both in the present and historically. The Japanese company worked with the biotech Medarex in the mid-2000s to develop nivolumab, the drug that became Opdivo. Medarex, which also developed Yervoy, was acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb in 2009. Ono continued developing Opdivo with BMS.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include additional information.