Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Biobusiness Briefs
  • Published:

Deal watch

Biogen acquires Stromedix to pursue novel fibrosis therapy

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery volume 11, page 260 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

Biogen Idec has agreed to buy Stromedix for an upfront fee of US$75 million and up to $487.5 million in milestone payments. Stromedix is a privately held biotechnology company focused on innovative therapies for fibrosis and organ failure. Its lead compound, STX-100 (which it licensed from Biogen in 2007), is a humanized monoclonal antibody against αVβ6 integrin, which is currently in a Phase II trial to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

Fibrosis is the excessive and persistent accumulation of connective tissue matrix (scar tissue) following injury, which disrupts normal tissue architecture and function, ultimately causing organ failure. “In some fibrotic diseases (for example, alcoholic cirrhosis), the initiating injury is clear, but in many others (for example, IPF) the initial insult is unknown,” notes Dean Sheppard, Lung Biology Center, University of California, San Francisco, USA, whose laboratory collaborated with Biogen in the original development of STX-100. “Although pathological fibrosis is a major cause of organ dysfunction in a number of chronic diseases, there are essentially no currently available effective treatments targeting the fibrotic process directly,” he adds.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Authors
  1. Sarah Crunkhorn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Crunkhorn, S. Biogen acquires Stromedix to pursue novel fibrosis therapy. Nat Rev Drug Discov 11, 260 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd3708

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd3708

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Translational Research newsletter — top stories in biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma.

Get what matters in translational research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Translational Research