Otsuka Pharmaceutical has agreed to acquire Visterra for approximately $430 million cash, the companies said today, in a deal that expands the pipeline of Otsuka and aligns with its goal of enhancing its drug discovery and development platforms. Through the acquisition, Otsuka will inherit Visterra’s Hierotope ® platform, intended to design and engineer precision antibody-based therapies that specifically bind to, and modulate, disease targets not adequately addressed by current technologies. Hierotope uses novel computational and experimental technologies, particularly atomic interaction network (AIN) analysis, to both identify hierotopes—epitopes deemed critical to the structural and functional integrity of disease pathogens—then design and engineer treatments that target these epitopes. The deal will also expand Otsuka’s pipeline with Visterra’s programs targeting infectious diseases, kidney diseases, cancer, and chronic pain. Otsuka said these therapeutic areas complement its own areas of focus —which are led by two “core” areas, the central nervous system ...