Italy’s Angelini Pharma has set its sights on the lucrative U.S. market, buying rare disease specialist Catalyst Pharmaceuticals and its potential blockbuster Firdapse for $4.1 billion.
Rome-based Angelini, a privately held family-owned company founded in 1919, is paying $31.50 per share for Florida-based Catalyst. This represents a 3% premium to Catalyst’s stock price at yesterday’s closing price and a 21% premium to its stock price on April 22, before market activity made it publicly known that a sale was imminent. Bloomberg reported on the possible acquisition on April 27th, causing the stock price to soar even further.
The companies expect to complete the transaction in the third quarter.
“Five years ago, we embarked on a major organizational, scientific and strategic transformation of Angelini Pharma, with the ambition to build a company that can compete at the highest global level,” Angelini CEO Segio Marlo di Condogianni said in a release. “Entering the U.S. market will give us the scale and capabilities we need to continue on this journey.”
In one of the largest acquisitions in history, Angelini acquires Catalyst, a 24-year-old company that went public on the Nasdaq in 2006. Catalyst began generating revenue in 2019 and reported sales of $589 million in 2025, a 20% increase. In February, the company said it expected sales this year to be between $615 million and $645 million.
Firdapse, which was approved in 2018 to treat the neuromuscular disorder Lambert-Eaton myasthenia syndrome (LEMS), had sales of $358 million last year, an 18% increase over the previous year.
Catalyst also owns the U.S. rights to Agamly, a drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy in partnership with Sunthera, which is expected to be approved in 2023 and had U.S. sales of $117 million last year. The company also reported sales of $113 million last year for its seizure drug Fycompa, which began facing generic competition in the fourth quarter.
“By combining our unique capabilities in rare diseases with Angelini’s proven global reach, we will create a stronger, scalable, and more robust rare disease platform that will expand access to life-changing treatments around the world,” Catalyst CEO Rich Daly said in a release. “For shareholders, this transaction provides immediate and solid cash value through an attractive premium.”
According to Reuters, Italian public development bank CDP Equity is helping finance the deal by taking a minority stake in Angelini. The financial institution supports Italy’s economy by financing infrastructure, fostering innovation and supporting business, while managing an equity base of 32 billion euros ($38 billion).
Mr. Angelini’s acquisition follows a similar deal last week, when Chiesi, another Italian family-owned private drug company, acquired Calvista, a Massachusetts company specializing in rare diseases, for $1.9 billion. With this acquisition, Chiesi gains the newly approved Ekterly, a potentially breakthrough treatment for hereditary angioedema (HAE).
Angelini Pharma and parent company Angelini Industries have struggled with investments, recently partnering with the European Investment Bank, the EU’s investment arm, to inject 150 million euros (about $174.3 million) into European biotech, medical technology and digital health companies over the next six years.
In February, Mr. Angelini raised $120 million to partner with Massachusetts biotech company Quiver Bioscience to advance new treatments for genetic epilepsy. Late last year, Mr. Angelini also inked a $550 million deal to acquire preclinical neurological assets from South Korean biotech company Sovergen.
