Whitehouse Station-based Merck & Co. Inc. has completed its takeover of North Carolina-based Inspire Pharmaceuticals Inc., the company said Monday.
Inspire is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on ophthalmology. The $430 million deal was announced last month.
In a press release announcing the closing of the deal, Beverly Lybrand, Merck’s senior vice president and general manager for neuroscience and ophthalmology, said Inspire’s assets are highly complementary to Merck’s.
“The successful completion of this transaction strengthens our ophthalmology business and positions us for future growth with an expanded portfolio and a best in class commercialization organization,” she said.
Inspire’s key product is AzaSite, a solution approved to treat bacterial eye infections. Last month, Sandoz Inc. filed paperwork with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration seeking to sell a generic version of the drug. Sandoz has its U.S. headquarters in Princeton.
Merck also said Monday that its Monarch Transaction Corp. subsidiary has merged into Inspire, keeping the latter’s name. Inspire will no longer be traded on the Nasdaq Global Market, and will no longer have reporting obligations under the Securities and Exchange Act, the company said.
