Astellas Purchases Ocata Therapeutics

Tokyo, Japan-based Astellas Pharma has agreed to acquire regenerative medicine specialist Ocata Therapeutics in an all-cash transaction valued at roughly $379 million.

Ocata's most advanced products are in clinical trials for the treatment of Stargardt macular degeneration, dry age-related macular degeneration and myopic macular degeneration. Ocata's intellectual property portfolio includes pluripotent stem cell platforms and induced pluripotent stem cell and other cell therapy research programs.

Astellas’ current portfolio focuses on the fields of urology, oncology, immunology, nephrology and neuroscience.