Takeover will boost firm’s commitment to discovering and advancing vaccines.
Pfizer entered into an agreement to acquire Coley Pharmaceuticals, a pioneer of a new class of drug candidates called TLR Therapeutics, for a cash tender offer for all of Coley’s outstanding stock at $8 per share, totaling $164 million.
Coley has an established pipeline of TLR Therapeutic, which work by stimulating or blocking immune system receptors called Toll-like receptors (TLRs), product candidates currently advancing through clinical development for targeting TLRs 7, 8, and 9. This class of immunomodulatory drug candidates are designed to fight cancers, allergy and asthma disorders, and autoimmune diseases.
“This acquisition is an important component of Pfizer’s vaccine strategy and reflects our commitment to research new and more effective vaccines to prevent infectious diseases and to treat cancers and other debilitating conditions. Coley’s innovative product candidate portfolio and technology have the potential to significantly enhance future vaccine and immunotherapeutic approaches to a broad range of diseases including Alzheimer’s, asthma, infectious disease, and oncology where we already have strong collaborative research in place,” says Jeffrey B. Kindler, chairman and CEO at Pfizer.
