Biotech acquisitions continue to abound this year. On April 10, Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VRTX) announced it would purchase Alpine Immune Sciences (NASDAQ: ALPN) for $4.9 billion in cash in a deal that's set to close before the end of this quarter. The prized asset that Vertex will gain as part of this purchase is ALPN-303, a potential autoimmune treatment that's in phase 2 clinical trials.

But there's a lot more to the deal's potential value for Vertex than the purchase of this particular pharmaceutical candidate might suggest. Let's explore why this move could be great in the long term to understand the issue a bit more.

ALPN-303 is being developed to treat IgA nephropathy (IgAN), a rare autoimmune disease of the kidney with no approved treatments capable of addressing its root cause. IgAN is thought to develop in around 4,200 people annually in the U.S., though the precise figure is not known because noticeable symptoms can take a long time to develop. Roughly 125,000 people are living with it in the U.S. today.

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Source Fool.com