Covington Advises AbbVie on $250 Million Acquisition of Biotechnology Company

WASHINGTON—Covington represented AbbVie in its acquisition of Celsius Therapeutics, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company pioneering new therapies for patients with inflammatory disease, in a deal worth $250 million.

Celsius' lead investigational asset is CEL383, a potential first-in-class anti-TREM1 antibody that has completed a Phase 1 clinical study for the treatment of IBD. TREM1 has been identified as a key disease driver gene in IBD, where it is expressed on inflammatory monocytes and neutrophils. In these cell types and others, TREM1 is upstream of multiple known inflammatory pathways and acts as an amplifier of inflammation.