June 8 (Reuters) – Incyte said on Monday it has agreed to buy Vega Therapeutics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Star Therapeutics, in a deal worth up to $2 billion, expanding its pipeline for blood disorder therapies.
The deal includes $1.25 billion cash upfront and up to $750 million in milestone payments, the U.S. drugmaker said.
The acquisition gives Incyte a late-stage asset in bleeding disorders, helping bolster its pipeline as it faces future pressure on its top-selling drug Jakafi when patent protections begin to wane.
Vega Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing antibody therapies for rare blood disorders. The parent company, Star, spun out Vega as a separate startup in December 2022.
Its lead experimental drug, VGA039, is a monoclonal antibody designed to restore balance in blood clotting.
The drug is currently in a late-stage trial for von Willebrand disease, the most common inherited bleeding disorder, in which the blood does not clot properly due to low levels of, or defects in, a clotting protein.
In April, it received ‘rare pediatric disease’ and ‘breakthrough therapy’ tags from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
In an early-to-mid-stage trial, VGA039 reduced bleeding rates, including in patients previously treated with intravenous therapies.
Currently, von Willebrand disease can only be treated by intravenous infusions given multiple times a week, whereas Star’s drug is administered once a month via subcutaneous injection.
In September 2025, the U.S. FDA had approved the expanded use of Takeda’s Vonvendi as a recombinant therapy for von Willebrand disease.
The transaction between Incyte and Star is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions, and will result in an R&D charge of about $1.25 billion in Incyte’s third-quarter and full-year results.
(Reporting by Siddhi Mahatole in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed and Vijay Kishore)
Brought to you by www.srnnews.com