They’re raising a lot more than your average crops on this ‘pharm.’ A new drug designed to combat narcolepsy at the core of the acquisition.

A Montgomery County biopharmaceutical company has raised $270 million, completing the largest equity financing in the local life sciences sector this year, while also acquiring U.S. rights to a narcolepsy drug from a French company, writes John George for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

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Harmony Biosciences of Plymouth Meeting, Pa., raised the funds to acquire and accelerate the development of new therapies for patients with sleep and other central nervous system disorders, the story continues.

The venture funding was led by a consortium of investors including Valor Equity Partners, Fidelity Management & Research Co., HBM Healthcare Investments, Vivo Capital, venBio Partners, Novo Holdings and Nan Fung Life Sciences.

Pitolisant is approved in the European Union where it is sold under the trade name Wakix for the treatment of narcolepsy in adult patients with and without cataplexy, a medical condition in which strong emotion or laughter causes sudden uncontrollable muscle weakness or temporary paralysis.

Harmony, a new company that is a member of the Chicago-based Paragon Biosciences corporate family, acquired the exclusive U.S. rights to develop, register and market the drug pitolisant from the French company Bioprojet.

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