ViroPharma has taken a big gamble with its $443m acquisition of Lev Pharmaceuticals, which has been made primarily to get its hands on Cinryze, a protein replacement therapy for the rare inflammatory disorder hereditary angioedema (HAE).
Several companies have been racing to be first to launch an approved product for the condition in both the US and Europe, despite the fact that only 10,000 people have been diagnosed with HAE across both regions. ViroPharma has backed Cinryze because it is the only candidate up for approval in a prophylactic setting. However, demand for a preventative treatment is very hard to gauge, and fears that it will be much smaller than ViroPharma hopes, sent shares in the company down 15% when it announced the acquisition.
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