How does Bill Meury celebrate a $14 billion merger? With a new post at a Blackstone-founded biotech.
Meury has been appointed CEO at Anthos Therapeutics, just over a month after closing Karuna Therapeutics’ sale to Bristol Myers Squibb. He previously held senior roles at Allergan and Actavis.
Anthos, which spun out of Novartis in 2019, is developing a next-generation blood thinner designed to prevent strokes and clots, but with lower risk of bleeding than current therapies. Recent Phase 2 results suggest a 150 mg dose of the candidate, abelacimab, reduced the risk of bleeding by 67% compared to Bayer and Johnson & Johnson’s blockbuster Xarelto in patients with atrial fibrillation.
“The opportunity to further build Anthos with Blackstone’s scale capital and potentially make a significant impact for patients with atrial fibrillation, cancer associated thrombosis and perhaps other therapeutic indications, where abelacimab may prove to be advantageous, is extremely motivating,” Meury said in a news release on Monday.
The move follows speculation that Blackstone was considering a sale of Anthos in the several-billion-dollar range, unnamed sources told Reuters in December. Anthos did not respond for a request for comment as of press time.
The company will be up against a handful of big pharma rivals, including Bayer, Bristol Myers and J&J. All four companies are targeting the blood clotting factor XI in the hopes of preventing internal clots while also allowing external clots that prevent bleeding after an injury.
Bayer in November stopped a Phase 3 trial in atrial fibrillation early due to “inferior efficacy” compared to the control arm. A separate Phase 3 trial in stroke patients is recruiting, according to a national clinical trials registry. BMS and J&J’s milvexian is currently in Phase 3.
Meanwhile, Bayer and J&J’s currently-approved anticoagulant Xarelto, which carries a warning label for bleeding, generated nearly $2.4 billion in 2023 sales for J&J. BMS’ Eliquis, which also has a warning for bleeding, brought in more than $12.2 billion in 2023 sales.
Meury is no stranger to big transitions. Before joining Karuna, he was chief commercial officer at Allergan through its merger with AbbVie in 2020. He succeeds Anthos’ founding CEO John Glasspool, who’s moving to an operating advisor role at Blackstone Life Sciences.