Conatus Pharmaceuticals, a developer of human therapeutics to treat liver disease and oncology, has acquired Idun Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Pfizer.

Conatus Pharmaceuticals is led by Steven Mento, the former CEO of Idun, which was acquired by Pfizer in 2005.

Idun is a biopharmaceutical company specialising in the discovery and development of drug candidates to control apoptosis.

At the time of the acquisition by Pfizer, Idun had a Phase 2 drug candidate in liver disease (emricasan/IDN-6556), preclinical drug candidates including IDN-13389 for oncology, a development agreement with Abbott for an oncology drug candidate, and key intellectual property in the field of apoptosis.

Dr Mento said: "The addition of Idun to Conatus continues our work in liver disease and expands our therapeutic reach into oncology. Conatus plans to leverage its scientific and drug development expertise and resources to continue to advance important therapeutic candidates in liver disease and oncology."

Jennifer Giottonini Cayer, SVP of corporate development at Conatus, said: "We appreciate the contributions of Pfizer's colleagues on these drug candidates. Conatus is excited to have the opportunity to work on these programs."