Pharma BD Deal Intelligence
A bust: AbbVie paid up to $212.5 million for Landos Biopharma's NX-13, only to terminate the Phase 2 NEXUS trial for 'Sponsor Decision, Not Safety Related,' leaving the CVR's clinical milestone unattainable and realized value stuck at the $137.5 million upfront.
Outcome grade pending — assessed 5 years post-close.
Full analysis, sources & comparables →AbbVie will pay up to $212 million to acquire Landos Biopharma, bolstering its ulcerative colitis pipeline with an experimental oral drug that targets a novel…
AbbVie said on Monday it would acquire Landos Biopharma in a deal worth up to $212.5 million, adding an experimental drug for ulcerative colitis to its…
NEXUS Phase 2 study of oral NX-13 (ABBV-113) in moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis. Overall status: TERMINATED. Why stopped: 'Sponsor Decision_Not Safety…
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AbbVie acquired Landos Biopharma for $20.42/share in cash (~$137.5M upfront) plus one non-tradable CVR worth up to $11.14/share (~$75M, total up to ~$212.5M) contingent on a clinical milestone; announced March 25, 2024 and closed May 23, 2024. The deal added NX-13 (ABBV-113), a first-in-class oral NLRX1 agonist then in Phase 2 (NEXUS) for moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis, to AbbVie's inflammatory/autoimmune pipeline behind Skyrizi and Rinvoq. UPDATE (post-close): AbbVie terminated the Phase 2 NEXUS trial (NCT05785715) — overall status TERMINATED on ClinicalTrials.gov, 'Sponsor Decision, Not Safety Related,' completion May 30, 2025 — and discontinued ABBV-113 development, citing an inadequately differentiated benefit-risk profile. With the program halted, the CVR's clinical milestone is almost certainly unattainable, leaving the realized deal value at the ~$137.5M upfront.
1M US cases/yr · $12.0B Global UC advanced-therapy market 2024 (~$12B subset of IBD biologics, led by Humira, Stelara, Entyvio, Skyrizi, Rinvoq, Omvoh) · ~30-40% Primary non-response rate to approved UC biologics, defining the differentiated-mechanism opportunity for oral NLRX1 agonism
Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease affecting approximately 1 million US adults, characterized by continuous colonic mucosal inflammation producing bloody diarrhea, urgency, and abdominal pain. The broader IBD population (UC + Crohn's disease) totals approximately 3.1 million US adults per CDC. Standard-of-care escalation runs 5-ASAs and corticosteroids through biologics (anti-TNF, anti-integrin, anti-IL-12/23, anti-IL-23) and oral small molecules (JAK inhibitors, S1P modulators), with primary non-response in 30-40% and secondary loss of response in 40-50% within one year. Moderate-to-severe UC drives the biologics-eligible population, estimated at 250,000-400,000 US adults, the majority of the IBD biologic spend. Colectomy rates remain meaningful at 10-15% lifetime despite advanced therapies. NLR family member X1 (NLRX1) is a mitochondrially-localized pattern-recognition receptor that negatively regulates NF-kB and type I interferon signaling while supporting epithelial barrier repair. Oral NLRX1 agonism offers a differentiated dual mechanism - anti-inflammatory plus epithelial repair - distinct from cytokine-blocking biologics and JAK inhibitors, with potential for gut-selective pharmacology and improved safety relative to systemic JAK class.
The UC competitive landscape spans biologics and oral small molecules. Approved biologics include AbbVie's Humira (adalimumab, anti-TNF) and Skyrizi (risankizumab, anti-IL-23, approved UC June 2024), J&J's Stelara (ustekinumab, anti-IL-12/23) and Tremfya (guselkumab, anti-IL-23, approved UC September 2024), Takeda's Entyvio (vedolizumab, anti-alpha4beta7 integrin), and Eli Lilly's Omvoh (mirikizumab, anti-IL-23 p19, approved UC 2023). Oral advanced therapies include AbbVie's Rinvoq (upadacitinib, JAK1), Pfizer's Xeljanz (tofacitinib, pan-JAK), and BMS's Zeposia (ozanimod, S1P1/5 modulator). Pipeline entrants include Takeda/Nimbus fazirsiran (TL1A, Phase 3), Merck/Prometheus tulisokibart (TL1A, Phase 3), Roivant/Pfizer RVT-3101 (TL1A), Arena/Pfizer etrasimod (now approved Velsipity), and Gilead/Morphic's investigational oral alpha4beta7. Landos' NX-13 is a first-in-class oral NLRX1 agonist with a dual anti-inflammatory/epithelial-repair mechanism, differentiated from cytokine-axis and JAK competitors, and complementary to AbbVie's existing Skyrizi/Rinvoq UC portfolio.
AbbVie discontinued ABBV-113 development; the Phase 2 NEXUS trial (NCT05785715) was terminated by sponsor decision (not safety related), citing an inadequately differentiated benefit-risk profile. The deal's CVR milestone is now almost certainly unattainable.
| Deal | Year | Value | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| AbbVie Inc. / Landos Biopharma Inc. (this deal) | 2024 | $212M | — |
| 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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