The pharmaeutical companies will form a new entity call Assembly Biosciences, which will aim to produce a treatment for hepatitis B.
US-based pharmaceutical companies Ventrus Biosciences and Assembly Pharmaceuticals have agreed to merge and form a new business that will be called Assembly Biosciences.
Assembly’s investors include Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, the corporate venturing subsidiary of healthcare company Johnson & Johnson, BioCrossroads, Luson Bioventures and Twilight Ventures. All four invested undisclosed amounts earlier this year.
Ventrus is a developer of treatments for gastrointestinal diseases, and it went public in 2011 with no significant external shareholders. The merged company will concentrate on advancing Assembly’s small-molecule hepatitis B (HBV) treatments.
“Our board and management team believe that by joining with Ventrus, we can accelerate the creation of shareholder value as well as the timeline for development of our much-needed HBV therapeutics,” said Derek Small, chief executive officer of Assembly.
“We enthusiastically embraced this opportunity after carefully assessing multiple other attractive proposals to advance Assembly to the next stage.”
