Nestlé Boosts Allergy Offering with Aimmune
Nestlé Health Science has agreed to buy Aimmune Therapeutics, a US biopharma and developer of food allergy treatments. The Swiss multinational food and beverage conglomerate already owns about 25.6% of the company through investments worth $473 million made between November 2016 and January 2020.
The acquisition, which values Aimmune at about $2.6 billion, is set to close in this year’s fourth quarter. It is expected to be accretive to Nestlé’s organic growth in 2021 and increase cash earnings by 2023.
Aimmune’s Palforzia is the first and only treatment approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that helps reduce the frequency and severity of allergic reaction to peanuts, including anaphylaxis, in children aged 4 to 17 years.
“This transaction brings together Nestlé’s nutritional science leadership with one of the most innovative companies in food allergy treatment,” said Nestlé Health Science CEO Greg Behar. “Together we will be able to offer a wide range of solutions that can transform the lives of people suffering from food allergies around the world.”
According to Nestlé, about 240 million people worldwide suffer from food allergies and reactions to peanuts are the most common.
Jean-Philippe Bertschy, an analyst with Swiss banking and investment management company Vontobel, described the Aimmune deal as “another milestone” for Nestlé after it purchased Canadian supplements manufacturer Atrium Innovations in December 2017 for $2.3 billion.
In September last year, Nestlé also took a “significant” minority stake in Before Brands, a health and wellness company focused on developing nutritional products that protect against allergenic development in babies.
Nestlé set up its health science arm on Jan. 1, 2011 to “pioneer a new market between food and pharma,” aiming to develop science-based personalized nutrition solutions to chronic medical conditions.
At the same time as establishing Nestlé Health Science, the group created the Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences, headquartered at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, to spearhead biomedical research into health and disease as influenced by genetics, metabolism and environment.
Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist
