Amgen Gains Eye Disease Blockbuster Drug in $28B Horizon Therapeutics Deal

In the biggest pharmaceutical purchase announced this year, Amgen has inked a $28 billion deal with Horizon Therapeutics, gaining access to one blockbuster eye drug and two others that are future revenue-drivers.

The deal, expected to close during the first half of 2023, will net Amgen the rights to Horizon’s thyroid eye disease drug Tepezza (teprotumumab-trbw), the chronic refractory gout therapy Krystexxa (pegloticase) and the euromyelitis optica spectrum disorder treatment Uplizna (inebilizumab-cdon).

Horizon reported worldwide sales of $1.7 billion for Tepezza in 2021 and the drug is on track to surpass that this year.

For Krystexxa, global sales have shown steady growth since 2018. Last year, the therapy brought in $566 million and is on track to exceed that for 2022. U.S. sales of Krystexxa were buoyed this year by FDA approval in July of an expanded label allowing the injectable therapy to be co-administered with methotrexate for patients with uncontrolled gout.

Uplizna, which is approved in the U.S. and the EU, brought in just $71 million in 2021 worldwide but is expected to more than double its sales this year.