Drug giant to buy Sirtris for $720m

GlaxoSmithKline deal latest in flurry of local purchases

Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc., the Cambridge biotech company that has attracted national attention for trying to use drugs based on an extract in red wine to fight diabetes and other age-related diseases, is being sold to British pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC for $720 million, the companies said late yesterday.

The purchase price of $22.50 per share is nearly double the company's closing price yesterday of $12.23, and more than double its initial offering price of $10 per share in May 2007.

The sale is the latest example of a Bay State biotech getting scooped up by a big drug company. Just two weeks ago, Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. bought Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc., the state's third largest biotech, for $8.8 billion, making it the biggest deal in the history of the state's biotech industry. Last fall, Pfizer Inc. bought Coley Pharmaceutical Group in Wellesley for $164 million. And Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. bought Adnexus Therapeutics for $430 million.

Many of the companies, like Sirtris, are relatively young but have a promising pipeline of experimental drugs that could one day become blockbusters. Large drug companies have been aggressively scouting for biotech companies to fill their pipelines as patents on their old, established drugs expire.

"This kind of transaction has become increasingly common," said Glen Giovannetti, global biotechnology leader for accounting firm Ernst & Young in Boston. "It's a reflection of how healthy the local start-up market is in terms of new companies being formed around exciting technologies."

The sale also marks the latest success for Sirtris chief executive Christoph Westphal, a former venture capitalist who previously cofounded Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Cambridge.

GlaxoSmithKline says it plans to continue to operate Sirtris as an autonomous drug discovery unit, with Westphal and the rest of the management team at the helm. And Westphal said he plans to stick with the company for the long term, despite his history of starting one venture after another, because of its potential to attack aging-related diseases.

"This is probably going to be one of the most important things I've done in my life," Westphal said. "This is a unique moment in drug discovery."

Though Sirtris is at least four years away from bringing any drugs to market, Westphal has dazzled investors and the media with tantalizing research that resveratrol, a compound found in red wine, might be able to stimulate enzymes called sirtuins that appear to play a key role in aging.

In 2006, the company published a scientific paper reporting that resveratrol reduces fat and boosts endurance by activating a key sirtuin. And last year, Sirtris teamed with Harvard for another study that found two other sirtuins protect against cell damage, opening up another possible mechanism to slow the effects of aging.

Westphal has often wowed audiences with pictures of mice and monkeys who look years younger after their sirtuins have been activated through a calorie-restricted diet, something that might be similarly possible with drugs that have the same effect.

Sirtris, founded in 2004, is in the early stages of testing a reformulation of resveratrol to treat Type 2 diabetes. But Sirtris eventually hopes to develop drugs to treat a number of aging-related diseases, such as cancer.

And though Westphal is careful to say the company is focused on treating specific diseases - not aging - many articles have suggested Sirtris could be on the verge of discovering the fountain of youth. Just last month, the company was featured in a Barbara Walters television special on ABC called "Live to be 150, Can You Do It?"

As part of GlaxoSmithKline, Westphal said Sirtris, which has close to 60 employees, will have deep pockets to step up its resources without needing to do additional fund-raising.

"We're stepping on the gas," Westphal said, adding that GlaxoSmithKline is committed to Sirtris's vision and will be a good research partner. "It's a wonderful thing for Boston biotech."

Todd Wallack can be reached at twallack@globe.com.