Pfizer to buy Anacor for eczema ointment

Pfizer has agreed to buy US biopharmaceutical company Anacor Pharmaceuticals. The $5.2 billion (£3.6 billion) deal will give Pfizer access to Anacor’s boron-containing drug crisaborole, a topical eczema treatment under review by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

‘We believe the acquisition of Anacor represents an attractive opportunity to address a significant unmet medical need for a large patient population with mild-to-moderate atopic dermatitis, which currently has few safe topical treatments available,’ Albert Bourla, the group president of Pfizer’s global innovative pharma business said in a statement. If US regulators approve crisaborole it will be the first eczema drug to be approved in 15 years.