NEW YORK – Blueprint Medicines on Monday said it will acquire San Diego-based Lengo Therapeutics in a deal worth up to $465 million in a bid to grow its EGFR inhibitor pipeline.
Blueprint will pay $250 million upfront in the deal and may pay up to $215 million if Lengo achieves certain regulatory and sales-based milestones. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company expects the acquisition to close by the end of the year.
The acquisition will bring under Blueprint's aegis Lengo's lead compound LNG-451, which it is developing to treat non-small cell lung cancer patients with EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations. Lengo expects to submit an investigational new drug application with the US Food and Drug Administration for the drug in December.
LNG-451 will bolster Blueprint's pipeline of investigational therapies — BLU-945 and BLU-701 — targeting activating EGFR mutations. Earlier this month, Blueprint licensed these two programs to Zai Lab for development and commercialization in greater China.
Blueprint will also acquire Lengo's undisclosed preclinical precision oncology programs and other R&D assets, including a catalog of covalent, highly brain-penetrant kinase inhibitors that Blueprint will add to its compound library to aid drug discovery efforts.
Goldman Sachs is financial adviser to Blueprint, and Goodwin Procter is legally representing the firm in the deal. Centerview Partners is Lengo's financial adviser, and Cooley is its legal counsel.