Vistagen acquires Pherin Pharmaceuticals for its neuroactive steroid pipeline

The biopharma Vistagen (Nasdaq:VTGN) has agreed to acquire privately-held Pherin Pharmaceuticals for roughly 12.4 million shares of Vistagen stock. It will sweeten the deal with “a nominal amount of cash,” the company said in a press release.

The deal is subject to customary closing conditions.

In October 2018, South San Francisco, California–based Vistagen announced that it had licensed global rights to develop PH10, a novel, intranasally administered neuroactive steroid known as a pherine. At that point, PH10 had demonstrated quick-acting antidepressant effects in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) in a Phase 2a study.

Pherin Pharmaceuticals is also based in South San Francisco. The company’s website lists a pipeline consisting of six drug candidates.

Vistagen had also licensed worldwide rights from Pherin for PH94B, another novel pherine that would be the subject of a Phase 3 study for social anxiety disorder (SAD). In addition, the …

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