Pfizer to Acquire Esperion, Add HDL Therapy

Pfizer Inc. has agreed to buy biopharmaceutical company Esperion Therapeutics Inc. and its promising new approach to reversing clogging of the arteries, the companies announced Sunday.

Under the deal, Pfizer plans to acquire Esperion for $35 a share, or about $1.3 billion. That represents a 54% premium over Esperion’s average closing share price during the last 20 trading days. Esperion shares closed at $22.70 on Friday on Nasdaq.

Esperion, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., was created solely to develop HDL -- or “good cholesterol” -- therapies for treating cardiovascular disease.

Esperion gained national attention in November when a groundbreaking study published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. showed the company’s synthetic version of HDL to be remarkably effective in reducing plaque, the fatty buildups in the arteries that cause heart attacks.

The company, founded by several scientists who helped develop Pfizer’s best-selling cholesterol drug, Lipitor, is working on therapies to be used by hospitals on patients who have already had heart attacks and other severe cardiac problems.

Lipitor brings in $10 billion in annual sales for New York-based Pfizer, the world’s largest drug maker.

“By acquiring Esperion, we can bring our research capabilities to bear on an emerging new area which has potentially significant beneficial impact on patients,” Hank McKinnell, Pfizer’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement. “Epidemiologic data and drug intervention trials both support a strong correlation between higher HDL levels and improvements in morbidity and mortality.”

The deal could help get the groundbreaking Esperion drug to market more quickly, given Pfizer’s dominance in the industry.

“The acquisition will enable us to utilize Pfizer’s skills and apply the resources necessary to develop our pipeline of compounds to benefit patients with atherosclerosis,” said Roger Newton, Esperion’s president and chief executive.

Esperion has four product candidates that are variations on HDL therapies but does not yet have actual products.