Versantis, a private Swiss-based clinical stage biotechnology company focused on addressing the growing unmet medical needs in liver diseases is to be sold to Genfit SA (NASDAQ: GNFT). With this acquisition Genfit seeks to expand it pipeline with VS-01-ACLF, a Phase 2 ready program based on first-in-class scavenging liposomes technology, VS-01-UCD, a pediatric program focused on urea cycle disorder (UCD), and VS-02-HE, an early-stage program focused on hepatic encephalopathy (HE). Deal terms include a payment of CHF 40 million, an aggregate of CHF 65 million of potential additional payments contingent on successful clinical and regulatory milestones, and one-third of the net proceeds from the potential sale of a Priority Review Voucher, if awarded by the FDA .

VISCHER AG is assisting Versantis with Mark Fitzpatrick as CEO, Vincent Forster as CSO and Meriam Kabbaj as COO. The team is led by Matthias Staehelin with Christian Wyss, Vincent Reardon and Pauline Pfirter (all Corporate/M&A) as well as Christoph Niederer and Veysel Oruclar (both Tax).