BOSTON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - An employee of French

drugmaker Ipsen has agreed to plead guilty to illegally

making more than $262,000 by trading on inside information he

learned about his company's plans to acquire cancer drug

developer Epizyme in 2022.

Dishant Gupta, Ipsen's director of data strategy and

operations, plans to plead guilty to securities fraud and is

settling related claims by the U.S. Securities and Exchange

Commission, according to filings in Boston federal court on

Tuesday.

A plea hearing is set for Oct. 8. An attorney for the

40-year-old New Jersey resident did not respond to a request for

comment.

Ipsen said it does not comment on legal matters concerning

current or former employees and was focused on compliance with

applicable laws.

Prosecutors said that an Ipsen executive during a meeting in

Cambridge, Massachusetts, in March 2022 asked Gupta to help him

put together materials related to a potential acquisition of a

cancer drug and an unidentified drug company's assets.

Days later, he met with Ipsen executives to discuss possible

acquisitions in the oncology market, and by April 7, 2022, Gupta

knew the cancer drug and assets Ipsen wanted to acquire belonged

to Cambridge-based biotech Epizyme, the maker of the cancer

medication Tazverik, prosecutors said.

That day, he began buying Epizyme shares in his wife's

brokerage account, according to charging documents. He bought

more in the days that followed as the companies discussed a

potential outright acquisition of Epizyme, prosecutors said.

Gupta began conducting frequent internet searches that

authorities said showed his awareness of a potential deal, with

searches for "Epizyme buyout" and "Epizyme takeover," according

to prosecutors and the SEC.

Ipsen announced its $247 million acquisition of Epizyme on

June 27, 2022. Gupta then sold all of his Epizyme shares,

netting him a profit of more than $262,000, prosecutors said.