Astellas Pharma agreed to purchase US biotech group Iveric Bio for roughly $5.9bn, marking the Japanese drugmaker’s largest-ever acquisition and giving it entry to the quickly increasing marketplace for age-related eye ailments.

Astellas mentioned on Monday that it will use money and loans to purchase the New Jersey-based firm, previously often known as Ophthotech, for $40 per share, representing a premium of twenty-two per cent to the US firm’s closing value on Friday.

The deal marks the most recent acquisition by Japanese firms — together with beer maker Kirin and IT specialist Fujitsu — looking for development exterior their shrinking dwelling market, at the same time as a weaker yen makes takeovers costlier.

Astellas, Japan’s second-largest pharmaceutical firm by income, has spent greater than ¥1tn ($7.3bn) in abroad acquisitions and partnerships since 2007, together with its $3bn buy of US drugmaker Audentes Therapeutics in 2020 and its $3.8bn takeover of US-based oncology specialist OSI Prescription drugs in 2010.

The most recent acquisition will add Iveric’s ACP to Astellas’ portfolio. ACP is a remedy at the moment in trials for geographic atrophy, a watch illness that impacts 1.6mn sufferers within the US. Shares in Astellas briefly rose 2 per cent following the deal’s announcement.

“We hope that ACP will turn out to be our third pillar” alongside menopause drug candidate fezolinetant and bladder most cancers remedy padcev, mentioned Naoki Okamura, who took over as chief govt in April, throughout a web-based information convention.

Astellas is looking for new blockbuster medicines with gross sales of $1bn and extra a yr. It’s below stress as a result of its US patent for Xtandi, a preferred prostate most cancers drug whose gross sales are shared with Pfizer, is expiring in 2027. For the present fiscal yr till March 2024, Astellas expects gross sales of ¥670bn from Xtandi.