Amryt transforms itself with takeover of US pharma firm to develop key drugs

The chance to advance medicines for rare conditions such as EB, or butterfly skin, spurred the company on to make the acquisition

Dr Joe Wiley, chief executive of Amryt, says treatments for rare diseases are a growing market

Just over four years ago, Dr Joe Wiley set about building Amryt into a world leader in developing rare and orphan disease drugs. It came about via an unusual route: a reverse takeover of a tiny Dublin-based oil and gas exploration company called Fastnet that was looking for other opportunities. Fast forward four years and Amryt has just finalised a transformational takeover of an American drug company called Aegerion that will catapult it ...