Pfizer agrees on $340M upfront to buy Therachon for dwarfism drug

Pfizer is set to pay $340 million (€304 million) upfront to buy Therachon for its treatment for a form of short-limbed dwarfism. The deal commits Pfizer to up to $470 million in additional milestones tied to the advance of the early-phase rare disease drug. Therachon has emerged as one of the better financed European rare disease biotechs in recent years, pulling in $100 million from investors including Novo Holdings and OrbiMed across its series A and B rounds. The funding has supported work on TA-46, a FGFR3 ligand trap designed to prevent the excessive signalling thought to suppress bone growth in people with achondroplasia. Limited data are available publicly on the drug, which only began testing in healthy volunteers last year. But Pfizer has seen enough promise in the preclinical and phase 1 results to put together an $810 million financial package and make TA-46 a key part of its plans in pediatric growth disorders.