UCB to Buy Neurona for Up to $1.2B

UCB has agreed to acquire privately held Neurona Therapeutics for up to $1.2B, consisting of $650 million upfront and up to $500 million in future milestone-based payments. The deal is designed to add a cell therapy to UCB’s seizure-treatment portfolio.

Neurona’s lead program, NRTX-1001, uses pluripotent stem cells engineered to calm the brain and repair neural networks. The therapy is in early clinical testing for hard-to-treat mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, and the article also notes evaluation for a few seizure disorders and Alzheimer’s disease. UCB described the transaction as expanding into regenerative medicine and advanced therapies.