Benzinga | Jun 3, 2021 03:25PM EDT

Bayer Buys Two Biotech Firms to Beef Up Radiopharmaceuticals

* Bayer AG (OTC:BAYRY) will acquire two small biotech companies in a deal that adds an experimental prostate cancer medicine to the German drugmaker's pipeline.

* Bayer will pay an undisclosed sum for Noria Therapeutics and PSMA Therapeutics, built around radiotherapy research from the Weill Cornell Medical College in NYC.

* The deal is centered around an actinium-225 labeled prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) small molecule currently in pre-IND studies for prostate cancer.

* Bayer has its portfolio of targeted alpha therapies, which includes Xofigo, a radium-based therapy approved to treat metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer with symptomatic bone metastases and no known visceral metastases, as well as an investigational conjugate platform based around thorium-227.

* Price Action: BAYRY shares are down 0.78% at $15.89 during the market session on the last check Thursday.