Pfizer to acquire Anacor

Just a month after abandoning its merger with Allergan, Pfizer will pay roughly $5.2 billion to acquire Anacor Pharmaceuticals, a biotech firm that specializes in developing boron-containing small-molecule therapeutics. Anacor already has one approved drug, the antifungal Kerydin, but the centerpiece of the acquisition is crisaborole, a topical treatment for eczema that is currently under FDA review. Because a novel eczema treatment has not been approved in more than 15 years, crisaborole could deliver peak annual sales of $2 billion or more, Pfizer says. It expects FDA to give crisaborole the green light by January. Founded in 2002, Anacor seeks to take advantage of boron’s empty p orbital, which can form coordinate covalent bonds, a feature that stabilizes a drug’s interaction with its target. For Pfizer, the deal is its first after its attempt to buy Allergan for $160 billion. Pfizer dropped the merger last month after an unfavorable tax rule change by the Department of the Treasury. The company is expected to make more relatively modest purchases to bolster its new product portfolio as it contemplates splitting into two separate entities, one focused on innovative, or patent-protected, products and the other on established products.