DEAL ANNOUNCEMENT / PRESS RELEASE
December 15, 2025
Read time: 4 min
International law firm McDermott Will & Schulte represented Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (STO: SOBI), a global biopharma company, in its entry into a definitive agreement to acquire Arthrosi Therapeutics, a private late-stage biotechnology company focused on developing a next generation treatment for gout.
Under the terms of the agreement, Sobi will pay USD $950 million upfront in cash to acquire Arthrosi, together with up to USD $550 million in cash in clinical, regulatory, and sales milestones. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in H1 2026.
The acquisition strengthens Sobi’s gout franchise by adding pozdeutinurad (AR882), an investigational next-generation, once-daily oral URAT1 inhibitor currently being evaluated in two fully recruited global Phase 3 clinical studies for the potential management of progressive and tophaceous gout and expected to read out in 2026. Pozdeutinurad complements Sobi’s pipeline by adding a potentially best-in-class URAT1 inhibitor for patients sub-optimally treated with first-line therapies.
The cross-border McDermott team was led by Krist Werling, Axel Schulz, Andy Warmus, John Zukin, Margaret Sampson, and Peter Lu, with assistance from Ryan Tisch, Jamie Ravitz, Anne Murray, Dave Santangelo, David Saunders, Daniel Gottlieb, Michael Bruno, Brennen Baylor, Ty Carson, Alexandra Alvarez, Fadi Mohamad, and Gracey Farquharson.
About McDermott Will & Schulte’s Health & Life Sciences Group
McDermott Will & Schulte’s internationally recognized healthcare and life sciences practice addresses the critical legal and business needs of leading industry players. You can turn to us to drive innovative deals and navigate high-stakes disputes, enforcement risks, and complex regulatory issues. Our global team leverages deep market intelligence and decades of experience representing clients across all subsectors, including health systems and other providers, payors, private equity and other investors, major healthcare and life sciences companies, health technology developers, and new market entrants. We stand as the only healthcare practice to receive top rankings from Best Law Firms, Chambers, Legal 500, and Law360, while also ranking among the leading life sciences law firms.
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