The Medicines Company Acquires Annovation BioPharma

The Medicines Company announced on Feb. 4, 2015 that it acquired all of the outstanding equity of Annovation Biopharma, a company creating anesthetics to address procedural and general sedation, for an undisclosed amount. Annovation is developing ABP-700 based on technology licensed from Massachusetts General Hospital. The drug is a novel intravenous anesthetic in Phase I clinical studies.

“This is an exciting investigational new agent in an area where there have been few advances over the past 30 years. There are approximately 230 million surgical procedures per year worldwide, with over 60% in the developed world. This agent has the potential to improve the efficiency of care for all types of patients undergoing surgical procedures, both in the hospital and in outpatient settings,” said Clive Meanwell, MD, PhD, chairman and CEO of The Medicines Company, in a press release.

According to the Annovation website, ABP-700 is a potent positive allosteric modulator of the γ–aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptor, a ligand-gated ion channel. Because the drug contains an “ester designed for rapid hydrolysis in the body by nonspecific tissue esterases that produce an inactive metabolite”, it is able to give a more “precise, rapidly titratable control of the anesthesia.”

Sources:
The Medicines CompanyAnnovation