Press release
Zevra Therapeutics to Acquire Acer Therapeutics, Expanding its Rare Disease Portfolio and Adding Commercial Product
Proposed acquisition of Acer for $15M in Zevra stock plus Contingent Value Rights (CVRs) and Zevra’s purchase of Acer’s secured debt in capital efficient
About this update from Zevra Therapeutics, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"Proposed acquisition of Acer for $15M in Zevra stock plus Contingent Value Rights (CVRs) and Zevra’s purchase of Acer’s secured debt in capital efficient structure Zevra to assume commercialization efforts of OLPRUVA™, recently approved for the treatment of urea cycle disorders (UCDs) FDA-approved commercial asset expected to increase and diversify Zevra’s revenues OLPRUVA™ commercial operations provide Zevra scale and cost synergies to complement the potential launch of arimoclomol Adds EDSIVO™, a Phase 3 program for vascular Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (vEDS), to Zevra’s rare disease clinical pipeline Zevra to discuss details during conference call today, at 8:30 a.m. ET CELEBRATION, Fla. and NEWTON, Mass., Aug. 31, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zevra Therapeutics, Inc. (NasdaqGS: ZVRA) (“Zevra”), a rare disease company melding science, data and patient need to create transformational therapies for diseases with limited or no treatment options, and Acer Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: ACER) (“Acer”), a pharmaceutical company focused on development and commercialization of therapies for rare and life-threatening diseases, today announced the companies have entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which Zevra would acquire Acer in a merger transaction having a total potential value for Acer stockholders of up to $91 million, consisting of (i) approximately 2.96 million shares of Zevra common stock valued at $15 million, or 0.121 shares of Zevra’s common stock per share of Acer common stock based on the volume weighted average trading price (VWAP) of shares of Zevra’s common stock during the 20 consecutive trading days ending on the trading date prior to today, and (ii) up to an additional $76 million in a series of potential cash payments pursuant to non-transferable Contingent Value Rights (CVRs) upon achievement of certain commercial and regulatory milestones for Acer’s OLPRUVA (sodium phenylbutyrate) and Acer’s EDSIVO (celiprol) within specified time periods. Certain additional cash payments are also possible pursuant to the CVRs with respect to milestones involving Acer’s early-stage program ACER-2820 (emetine), as described further below. Zevra has also purchased Acer’s secured debt at a discount from Nantahala Capital (Nantahala) through a series of transactions in capital efficient structure. In addition, Zevra has agreed to prov...