Pharma BD Deal Intelligence
A clean, fast $250M cash tuck-in: AbbVie bought Celsius Therapeutics for its Phase 1 anti-TREM1 antibody CEL383 in IBD, and the renamed ABBV-8736 kept advancing under AbbVie into a Phase 2a Crohn's platform study — early-stage but on track.
Outcome grade pending — assessed 5 years post-close.
Full analysis, sources & comparables →AbbVie will pay $250 million to acquire Celsius Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech that spun out of the Broad Institute to use single-cell…
AbbVie said on Thursday it had acquired privately held Celsius Therapeutics for about $250 million in cash, adding an experimental inflammatory bowel disease…
AbbVie has completed the acquisition of Celsius Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on inflammatory bowel disease, for approximately…
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AbbVie acquired clinical-stage Celsius Therapeutics for $250M in cash, a deal announced and closed on June 27, 2024. Celsius's lead asset CEL383 is a potential first-in-class anti-TREM1 antibody for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD); TREM1 is expressed on inflammatory monocytes and neutrophils and acts as an amplifier of inflammation upstream of multiple known IBD pathways. At deal, CEL383 had completed a Phase 1 single-ascending-dose study in healthy volunteers. Under AbbVie the program was renamed ABBV-8736 and has advanced: a Phase 1 multiple-ascending-dose study (NCT07141199) completed, a Phase 1 subcutaneous-vs-intravenous bioavailability study (NCT07413133) began in February 2026, and ABBV-8736 was added as a treatment arm in AbbVie's Phase 2a platform study in moderate-to-severe Crohn's disease (NCT06548542). Top-25 pharma buyer.
3.1M US cases/yr · $22.0B Global IBD biologics/advanced therapies market 2024 (~$22B, led by Humira biosimilars, Stelara, Entyvio, Skyrizi, Rinvoq) · ~30-40% Primary non-response rate to anti-TNF biologics in IBD, defining the novel-mechanism unmet need
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), comprising ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), affects approximately 3.1 million US adults per CDC surveillance, with roughly 70,000 new diagnoses annually. UC involves continuous colonic mucosal inflammation while CD produces transmural, skip-pattern inflammation anywhere from mouth to anus. Standard-of-care escalates from 5-ASAs and corticosteroids through thiopurines/methotrexate to biologics - anti-TNF (infliximab, adalimumab), anti-integrin (vedolizumab), anti-IL-12/23 (ustekinumab), anti-IL-23 (risankizumab, mirikizumab, guselkumab), and JAK inhibitors (tofacitinib, upadacitinib). Despite this armamentarium, primary non-response affects 30-40% of patients and secondary loss of response 40-50% within one year, leaving a large unmet need for novel mechanisms. Triggering Receptor Expressed on Myeloid cells 1 (TREM1) is an innate-immunity amplifier expressed on neutrophils and monocytes that synergizes with TLR/NOD signaling to drive pro-inflammatory cytokine release. TREM1 inhibition represents a first-in-class upstream innate-immune approach orthogonal to approved T-cell-axis (IL-23/JAK) or adhesion (integrin) mechanisms, potentially addressing the non-responder population.
The IBD market is dominated by AbbVie's Humira (adalimumab, anti-TNF, now biosimilar-eroded but still multi-billion), Skyrizi (risankizumab, anti-IL-23, approved CD 2022 and UC 2024) and Rinvoq (upadacitinib, JAK1), plus J&J's Stelara (ustekinumab, anti-IL-12/23, biosimilars launching 2025) and Tremfya (guselkumab, anti-IL-23, approved UC 2024), Takeda's Entyvio (vedolizumab, anti-alpha4beta7), Eli Lilly's Omvoh (mirikizumab, anti-IL-23), and Pfizer's Xeljanz (tofacitinib) / Bristol Myers Squibb's Zeposia (ozanimod, S1P). Novel-mechanism pipeline includes Takeda's fazirsiran (TL1A, Phase 3), Merck's tulisokibart (TL1A, Phase 3, from Prometheus $10.8B acquisition 2023), Roivant/Pfizer's RVT-3101 (TL1A), and emerging oral anti-integrin, S1P, and Janus-selective agents. Celsius' CEL383 is a first-in-class anti-TREM1 monoclonal antibody targeting innate-immunity amplification upstream of multiple cytokine pathways, differentiating from the crowded IL-23/TL1A/TNF-axis field and fitting AbbVie's strategy to maintain post-Humira IBD leadership.
Under AbbVie, the acquired anti-TREM1 antibody CEL383 was renamed ABBV-8736 and added as a treatment arm in AbbVie's Phase 2a platform study in moderate-to-severe Crohn's disease (NCT06548542), alongside completion of a Phase 1 multiple-ascending-dose study (NCT07141199). Confirms active advancement of the IBD asset that drove the $250M acquisition.
| Deal | Year | Value | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| AbbVie Inc. / Celsius Therapeutics Inc. (this deal) | 2024 | $250M | — |
| AbbVie Inc. / Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH | 2016 | $2.2B | 95 |
| AbbVie Inc. / Genmab A/S | 2020 | $3.9B | 81 |
| AbbVie Inc. / Pharmacyclics Inc. | 2015 | $21.0B | 79 |
| AbbVie Inc. / Apogee Therapeutics, Inc. | 2026 | $10.9B | 72 |
| AbbVie Inc. / ImmunoGen Inc. | 2023 | $10.1B | 69 |
| AbbVie Inc. / Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 2024 | $2.0B | 64 |
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