Biopharmaceutical company Harmony Biosciences, LLC (Harmony), a member of the Paragon Biosciences (Paragon) corporate family, announced today it has acquired the exclusive US right to develop, register and market the drug Pitolisant from French company Bioprojet SCR (Bioprojet), advised by McDermott Will & Emery.

Pitolisant has been recently approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to treat adults suffering from narcolepsy.

Harmony and the Paragon family of companies are dedicated to biomedical innovation for patients suffering from challenging and debilitating but often ignored diseases. With Paragon’s significant resources and expertise, Harmony raised over $270 million from highly experienced equity investors including Valor Equity Partners, Fidelity Management & Research Company, HBM Healthcare Investments, Vivo Capital, venBio Partners, Novo Ventures and Nan Fung Life Sciences. This funding will enable Harmony to fulfill its mission of providing novel treatment options to patients with orphan and rare conditions, with a focus on CNS disorders.

Harmony and Bioprojet will continue collaborative research/development under the guidance of a joint development committee. Harmony intends to establish an expanded access program (EAP) for pitolisant in the US in early 2018 and expects to submit a new drug application (NDA) for the treatment of narcolepsy in adult patients during the first half of 2018.

McDermott Will & Emery advised Bioprojet with Emmanuelle Trombe (Partner), Charles de Raignac and Louise Aberg in Paris,  Jeffrey Brennan, Jon Dubrow (Partners) and Melanie Hallas for Competition aspects in Washington and Albert Sokol (Partner) for Corporate aspects in Boston.