(Bloomberg) -- Bayer AG won the backing of European Union regulators for its cardiology drug as the German company fights to offset the looming impact of expiring patents.
The European Medicines Agency’s drug advisory panel recommended acoramidis for marketing authorization, the regulator said Friday. The oral medicine treats wild-type or variant transthyretin amyloidosis in adult patients with cardiomyopathy, a disease affecting the heart muscle that can cause it to fail.
Bayer acquired the European marketing rights for acoramidis from BridgeBio Pharma Inc. earlier this year for $310 million. Grappling with high debt and legal costs associated with its $63 billion takeover of Monsanto in 2018, the German company’s pharma division has turned to a string of small deals to bolster its pipeline, with top-selling medicines Xarelto, a blood thinner, and Eylea, an eye treatment, losing their patent protection.
Acoramidis succeeded in meeting endpoints in a late-stage clinical trial and has already received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration.
BridgeBio holds the commercialization rights for acoramidis in the US. Pending approval, Bayer plans to launch the drug in Europe in the first half of 2025, it said in a statement.
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