Mass. biotech firm acquired by global health care company Baxter

Baxter International Inc., the global health care company, has acquired a Newton biotechnology firm developing a treatment for sickle cell disease.

Baxter, headquartered in Deerfield, Ill. did not disclose the price it paid for the firm, called AesRx.

“With this acquisition, we gain a compound that has the potential to address an extremely high unmet clinical need in a community with inadequate treatment options and no recent major clinical developments,” Ludwig Hantson, president of Baxter’s biotechnology unit, Baxter BioScience, said in a news release Wednesday.

Sickle cell disease affects more than 13 million people worldwide, including about 100,000 in the United States, mostly African Americans. The disorder can cause anemia, chronic pain, tissue and organ damage, and other problems.

AesRx is conducting human trials of its oral drug, known as Aes-103, in a collaboration with the National Institutes of Health. Early data show the drug may reduce the deformation of red blood cells.

With the acquisition, AesRx said Wednesday that it paid back a $750,000 starter loan from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center.