By Siddhi Mahatole
June 8 (Reuters) – Incyte said on Monday it will buy Vega Therapeutics, a wholly owned subsidiary of privately held Star Therapeutics, in a deal worth up to $2 billion, expanding its pipeline for blood disorder therapies.
The deal includes $1.25 billion cash upfront and up to $750 million in milestone payments, the U.S. drugmaker said.
The acquisition gives Incyte a late-stage drug candidate for bleeding disorders, as it faces pressure on its top-selling blood cancer drug Jakafi when patent protections begin to wane around 2028.
Vega Therapeutics develops antibody therapies for rare blood disorders. The parent company, Star, spun out Vega as a separate startup in December 2022.
Its lead experimental drug, VGA039, is a monoclonal antibody being tested in patients with von Willebrand disease, the most common inherited bleeding disorder, in which blood does not clot properly due to the absence of a protein.
‘TEXTBOOK’ TYPE OF DEAL
Incyte CEO Bill Meury called the deal a “textbook” fit for the company’s strategy.
“It (the deal) really checks all the boxes,” Meury said, but noted that it was unlikely that they “replace Jakafi with one big swing.”
Jakafi recorded sales of about $3.09 billion in 2025.
VGA039 is in a late-stage trial, with results expected in early 2029 and a potential launch after Jakafi is expected to lose patent protection.
Unlike current treatments requiring intravenous infusions multiple times a week, VGA039 offers the convenience of being administered once a month via subcutaneous injection.
Incyte Executive Vice President Dave Gardner said VGA039 could be priced at around $500,000 per year.
Truist analyst Srikripa Deverakonda estimated $1 billion in peak sales by 2036, with revenue ramping from 2030, and said that “the focus for commercialization will be Incyte’s ability to generate switches to a monthly subcutaneous therapy.”
The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026.
(Reporting by Siddhi Mahatole in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed and Vijay Kishore)
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