Emergent BioSolutions on Tuesday announced that it entered into an agreement to acquire Adapt Pharma for up to $735 million, gaining the latter's Narcan (naloxone) nasal spray. Daniel Abdun-Nabi, chief executive at Emergent, said the addition of Narcan to the company's "portfolio of preparedness solutions allows us to apply our experience gained from two decades of partnering with the US government to safeguard public health against biological and chemical threats to address the devastating increase in deaths due to opioid overdoses." 

The transaction, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter, consists of an upfront payment of $635 million, comprised of $575 million in cash and $60 million in Emergent stock, and up to $100 million in cash for potential sales-based milestones through 2022. 

The FDA cleared Narcan in 2015, with Emergent noting the product remains the only needle-free formulation of naloxone approved in the US and Canada for the emergency treatment of known or suspected opioid overdose. In addition to Narcan, Emergent said it will acquire a pipeline of new treatment and delivery options to address opioid overdose. Further, the company stated that through the merger, it will gain approximately 50 employees, located in the US, Canada and Ireland, including workers responsible for supply chain management, R&D, government affairs and commercial operations. 

Emergent anticipates that the incremental revenue contribution in 2019 from the Adapt acquisition will be between $200 million and $220 million, while it also expects the transaction will be accretive to adjusted net income next year. The company added that "with the completion of this acquisition and the recently announced acquisition of PaxVax, [we] will achieve or exceed [our] growth plan goal of $1 billion in revenue in 2020." 

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