UK’s specialty pharma firm BTG spends $380 million on two acquisitions

British specialty pharma company BTG Plc today agreed to spend $380 million on two acquisitions in order to create an interventional medicine business with potential sales of $1 billion.

The London-based company will buy US-based Ekos Corp, a fast growing and profitable interventional vascular company, for $180 million (£120 million) in cash and up to $40 million (£27 million) in future milestone payments.

BTG will also acquire the targeted liver cancer therapies business of Canada's Nordion Inc, for $200 million (£133 million) in cash.

Seattle-based Ekos manufactures the EkoSonic Endovascular System, a differentiated interventional product using a locoregional approach in the treatment of severe blood clots. EkoSonic is cleared for use in the US and EU.

BTG said that there are around 500,000 cases of deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and peripheral arterial occlusion in the US each year. The current standard treatment is systemic anticoagulation therapy, which prevents additional clots but does not reduce the existing clot burden.

At present, EkoSonic is used in 490 hospitals in the US and in approximately 100 hospitals outside the US.

The total US market opportunity for locoregional treatment of blood clots is estimated to be approximately $500 million, but BTG believes that Ekos has the potential to generate revenues of over $100 million.

Ottawa-based Nordion's targeted therapies is a high growth profitable business that is focused on using Therasphere for targeted interventional treatment of liver cancer.

Therasphere is a product comprising radioactive glass beads which target the tumour from within the body with a high concentration of radiation, thereby limiting both damage to surrounding healthy tissue and side effects for the patient in comparison to externally delivered radiation.

BTG believes that Therasphere, which has been approved in the US, Canada and the EU, will generate revenues of around $1 billion in the future.

Louise Makin, CEO of BTG, said, ''This is an exciting opportunity to build on our existing interventional oncology business and to create a commercial and scientific leader in the sector. We believe that the combination will be highly beneficial to both patients and physicians as it brings together expertise that will be applied to the development and use of locoregional therapies for liver cancer.''

BTG is a specialist healthcare company that develops products to target critical care, cancer and other disorders. The company has diversified revenues from sales of its own marketed products and from royalties on partnered products.