11:21 AM EDT, 03/14/2024 (MT Newswires) -- AstraZeneca ( AZN ) on Thursday announced a deal to buy Amolyt Pharma for up to $1.05 billion, boosting its late-stage rare disease pipeline.

The UK-based biopharmaceutical company will acquire all of Amolyt's outstanding shares on a cash and debt-free basis. AstraZeneca ( AZN ) said it will pay $800 million upfront at the deal's closing and up to $250 million in milestone payments.

The deal is expected to close by the end of the third quarter, subject to regulatory clearances.

Amolyt's pipeline includes eneboparatide, an investigational late-stage asset with potential to treat patients with chronic hypoparathyroidism. The proposed acquisition will bolster the Alexion, AstraZeneca's ( AZN ) rare disease late-stage pipeline and expand on its bone metabolism franchise.

"As leaders in rare disease, Alexion is uniquely positioned to drive the late-stage development and global commercialization of eneboparatide, which has the potential to lessen the often debilitating impact of low parathyroid hormone and avoid the risks of high-dose calcium supplementation," Alexion Chief Executive Marc Dunoyer said in a statement.

Amolyt announced the beginning of eneboparatide's phase 3 trial last May, saying at the time that it was anticipating topline data by the end of 2024. Hypoparathyroidism is one of the largest known rare diseases, affecting an estimated 115,000 people in the US and 107,000 people in the European Union, roughly 80% of which are women, AstraZeneca ( AZN ) said Thursday.

"We are looking forward to the development of our portfolio as part of Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease, an organization with proven expertise and a successful track-record in bringing innovative therapies to patients with rare diseases globally," Amolyt Chief Executive Thierry Abribat said in a separate statement.

Amolyt's AZP-3813 is a phase 1 peptide growth hormone receptor antagonist for the potential treatment of acromegaly.

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