Acquisitions · Pharma
Shionogi agrees to buy Texas rare-disease drugmaker IntraBio for $2 billion
- Buyer
- Shionogi (Osaka)
- Target
- IntraBio, Austin, Texas
- Value
- $2.0B
- Status
- Announced. Expected to close November to December 2026.
- Date
- 2026-10-05
Shionogi will acquire all shares of Austin-based IntraBio through its US unit, Shionogi Inc. The deal brings in Aqneursa, IntraBio's marketed treatment for a rare neurological disease, along with its global IP and commercialization rights. IntraBio, founded in 2015, booked about $68 million in sales in 2025. Closing depends on antitrust waiting periods and other regulatory clearances.
Why it matters
Shionogi is building rare diseases into a second pillar beyond infectious disease, and this buys a product that already earns revenue rather than a pipeline bet. It also puts more product through the US sales network Shionogi has assembled through acquisitions since 2025. The US antitrust (HSR) waiting period is the main gate before a year-end close.
The deal
Shionogi announced the agreement on October 5, 2026. Its New Jersey-based US unit, Shionogi Inc., will pay IntraBio's shareholders $2.0 billion in cash up front for all outstanding shares, and IntraBio will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Shionogi Inc. The rights acquired cover levacetylleucine, sold as Aqneursa, and related compounds worldwide.
Goldman Sachs acted as financial adviser to Shionogi, with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton as legal counsel. IntraBio was advised by Centerview Partners and Morgan Stanley on the financial side and by Kirkland & Ellis and DLA Piper on legal matters.
About IntraBio
IntraBio is a privately held company focused on rare neurodegenerative and inherited neurological diseases. Aqneursa won US approval in September 2024 for the neurological symptoms of Niemann-Pick disease type C and is also approved in the European Union for that disease.
Sales rose steeply after launch. The company reported $67.9 million in 2025 revenue, up from $3.5 million in 2024. On September 18, 2026, less than three weeks before the deal was announced, the FDA expanded the label to cover ataxia in patients with ataxia-telangiectasia weighing at least 15 kg, making it the first approved treatment for ataxia in that disease.
Strategy
The deal follows Shionogi's purchase of global rights to the ALS drug Radicava (edaravone) from Tanabe Pharma for $2.5 billion up front, also paid through Shionogi Inc. In early April 2026, Shionogi said the transfer of rights in the major markets had been completed. It expected that product to add about $700 million a year in global sales and to raise earnings from fiscal 2026, and more than 100 staff from Tanabe Pharma America moved to Shionogi.
Aqneursa gives the US rare-disease team built around Radicava a second neurology product with a recent label expansion. Both deals were structured as cash purchases of marketed products rather than early-stage licensing.
Approvals and timeline
Shionogi expects to close between November and December 2026. Completion is subject to customary conditions, including the expiry of waiting periods under competition laws and regulatory approvals. No change to the timetable had been reported as of mid-October 2026.
Sources
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