United Thera acquires Thymmune for $140 million

US drugmaker United Therapeutics (Nasdaq: UTHR) yesterday revealed that it has acquired Thymmune Therapeutics, a privately held, pre-clinical stage biotechnology company developing scalable, regenerative thymic cell therapies for the potential treatment of post-transplant organ tolerance, immunodeficiencies, and autoimmune diseases.

The thymus is a critical organ for the development and proper function of key parts of the immune system, including training T-cells, which are essential for fighting infections and other diseases. Thymmune has a proprietary process for converting human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) into thymic cells, which - once inside the body - mature into cell types that can restore healthy T-cell function.