Four years into its existence, Cydan Development, New Enterprise Associates’ orphan drug startup accelerator, has notched its first big win. Vtesse, the first company to emerge from Cydan, has been sold in a deal valued at $200 million.
Sucampo Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SCMP), a Rockville, MD-based maker of a drug to treat various bowel conditions, will acquire Vtesse for $170 million in cash and 2,782,678 shares of Sucampo, which closed at $11 apiece on Friday. Vtesse’s shareholders—New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Bay City Capital, Pfizer Venture Investments, and Lundbeckfond Ventures—could also get royalties on sales if Vtesse’s experimental drug, VTS-270, ever reaches the market. The drug candidate is designed to be a potential treatment for the rare genetic condition Niemann-Pick Type C1 disease, which mostly affects children.