Pharma & Biotech Mergers & Acquisitions News
Pharmaceutical
Big pharmas are not deterred by China’s increasingly complex business environment. Instead, they are changing strategies to minimize risks while continuing to benefit from China, said speakers at ChinaTrials held last week in Shanghai. 18 November 2024
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Pharmaceutical
Swiss pharma giant Novartis today announced an upgrade to its mid-term guidance, in advance of its Meet Novartis Management event for investors and analysts in London. 21 November 2024
Biotechnology
Aizen Therapeutics, an AI-driven biotech headquartered in San Diego, has officially launched from stealth mode, introducing its drug discovery platform, DaX. 21 November 2024
Biotechnology
Massachusetts, USA-based firm VBI Vaccines has initiated a nationwide voluntary recall of PreHevbrio (hepatitis B vaccine), as it proceeds with bankruptcy and the shutdown of its operations. 19 November 2024
Pharmaceutical
Big pharmas are not deterred by China’s increasingly complex business environment. Instead, they are changing strategies to minimize risks while continuing to benefit from China, said speakers at ChinaTrials held last week in Shanghai. 18 November 2024
Biotechnology
Last week saw US pharma major AbbVie release disappointing Phase II trial results on its emraclidine in schizophrenia, which benefited Bristol Myers Squibb. Also on the research front, Germany’s Merck KGaA and Abbisko’s pimicotinib showed positive results in tenosynovial giant cell tumor (TGCT). M&A news saw German BioNTech punting $800 million upfront to acquire China based oncology focused Biotheus. Also of note, US drugmaker Halozyme Therapeutics made an unsolicited takeover bid for Evotec, valuing the German firm, at around 2 billion euros. 17 November 2024
Biosimilars
South Korean biosimilars company Celltrion today announced its acquisition of iQone Healthcare Switzerland a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on distribution, sales, and marketing in Switzerland. 15 November 2024
Biotechnology
Shares of German drug discovery company Evotec leapt 20% to 10.33 euros this morning on the revelation that the USA’s Halozyme Therapeutics has submitted a non-binding proposal to acquire Evotec for 11.00 euros per share in cash, implying a fully-diluted equity value of around 2.0 billion euros ($2.12 billion). 15 November 2024
Biotechnology
BeiGene has announced plans to rebrand as BeOne Medicines, a move the cancer specialist says reflects its commitment to fighting cancer through collaboration. 15 November 2024
Pharmaceutical
Life science investor Syncona has announced the launch of its newest portfolio company, Slingshot Therapeutics, through the Syncona Accelerator initiative. 14 November 2024
Biotechnology
Although it is seeing a downturn in sales and profits, German biotech BioNTech is continuing to acquire assets with the cash pile it made through the covid pandemic, notably iis Comirnaty vaccine that was developed with Pfizer (NYSE: PFE). 13 November 2024
Biotechnology
Trace Neuroscience, a newly launched biopharma based in San Francisco, aims to advance treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, starting with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). 12 November 2024
Biotechnology
AlloVir has entered into a definitive agreement to merge with biopharma company Kalaris Therapeutics. 8 November 2024
Pharmaceutical
European regulators will decide by December 6 whether Novo Holdings, the controlling shareholder of Danish pharma giant Novo Nordisk, can finalize its $16.5 billion acquisition of contract drug manufacturer Catalent. 5 November 2024
Biotechnology
California, USA-based biotech Nektar Therapeutics’ shares closed up more than 8% at $1.33 yesterday after it announced the sale of its only manufacturing facility. 5 November 2024
Pharmaceutical
Pharmaceutical M&A came back with a bang during October, after a quiet September. 5 November 2024
Pharmaceutical
US pharma major AbbVie last week proposed $1.4 billion acquisition of US CNS drug developer Aliada Therapeutics. Last week saw a bunch of third quarter 2024 financials results, among which were Elil Lilly, AbbVie and Merck & Co. Also of note, Lexicon’s type I diabetes drug Zynquista faced a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee review that resulted in largely negative vote against recommendation. 3 November 2024
Biotechnology
Maryland, USA–based glycobiology specialist GlycoMimetics has entered into an acquisition agreement with Crescent Biopharma, a privately held biotechnology company advancing a pipeline of oncology therapeutics designed to treat solid tumors. 30 October 2024
Biotechnology
German drugmaker Dr Falk Pharma GmbH today announced completion of the acquisition of Kynos Therapeutics, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on the development of novel KMO inhibitors for acute and chronic inflammatory diseases. 29 October 2024
Biotechnology
US Pharma major AbbVie has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Aliada Therapeutics, a biotech advancing therapies using a novel blood-brain barrier (BBB)-crossing technology to address challenging central nervous system (CNS) diseases. 29 October 2024
Biotechnology
Ottimo Pharma, a biotech founded by Medicxi in 2020, has emerged from stealth mode with an executive team packed with prominent industry leaders. 28 October 2024
Pharmaceutical
Significant news last week including UK Pharma major GlaxoSmithKline releasing positive new data on its daprodustat as a new option for anemia in kidney disease. Deal-making developments featured Pfizer entering an agreement that could cost it up to $1.2 billion to gain certain rights to Biohaven Pharma’s migraine drug Nurtec. Also, Roche subsidiary Genentech inked a license and research collaboration with US start-up Novome Biotechnologies on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Meantime, Japan’s Kyowa Kirin gained a positive recommendation for its rare blood cancer drug Poteligeo from the UK’ health technology assessor the NICE. Additionally, health care giant Johnson & Johnson surprised markets, with the announcement that it is splitting out its Consumer Health business into a separate publicly-traded company. 14 November 2021
Pharmaceutical
US healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson says it intends to separate the company’s Consumer Health business, creating a new publicly traded company. Shares in J&J gained 4.3% in pre-market trading in New York on Friday but closed up just 1.2% at $165.01. 14 November 2021
Pharmaceutical
Danish iron metabolism specialist Pharmacosmos has announced the acquisition of AbFero Pharmaceuticals, a privately-held US pharma company dedicated to treating diseases of iron overload. 11 November 2021
Pharmaceutical
Finnish company Forendo Pharma has been purchased by fellow women’s health specialist Organon for up to around $1 billion, including potential milestone payments. 11 November 2021
Biotechnology
Coming out of stealth, US developer of predictive precision medicines Notable Labs is acquiring worldwide development and commercial rights to volasertib, a PLK-1 inhibitor in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) from Oncoheroes, which gained rights to the investigational compound from Germany’s Boehringer Ingelheim in 2019. 11 November 2021
Generics
The US Federal Trade Commission will require generic drug marketers ANI Pharmaceuticals and Novitium Pharma to divest, to Prasco, ANI’s development rights to one generic drug used to treat common infections and assets with respect to another generic drug used to treat inflammation as part of a settlement resolving charges that ANI’s $210 million acquisition of Novitium, announced in March this year, likely would be anticompetitive. 11 November 2021
Pharmaceutical
Deal-making news last week featured US pharma giant Merck & Co further expanding its cytokines portfolio, signing a license and research collaboration with Synthekine on novel therapeutics for autoimmune diseases. Also, Swiss giant Novartis extended its interest in the area of protein degraders, announcing an up to $1.3 billion deal with Dunad Therapeutics. Long rumored and finally announced, Novartis said it has agreed to sell back to Roche the 33% of voting shares it has been holding in its Swiss rival for 20 years or so. Meantime, Pfizer, already preeminent in the COVID-19 sector with its hugely successful vaccine Comirnaty, released very positive Phase II/III trial results for its antiviral Paxlovid (ritonavir). 7 November 2021
Pharmaceutical
Mid-sized Japanese drugmaker Nippon Shinyaku, which is focussed on rare disease and blood cancer treatments, has announced the setting up a subsidiary in China’s capital, Beijing. 5 November 2021
Pharmaceutical
Takeda was the only pharma heavyweight to announce an acquisition in October, but a few smaller drugmakers did deals to create larger entities, too. 4 November 2021
Pharmaceutical
Novartis has agreed to sell 53.3 million (around 33%) bearer shares of fellow Swiss pharma giant Roche in a bilateral transaction to Roche for a total consideration of $20.7 billion. 4 November 2021
Biotechnology
Belgian biotech Agomab Therapeutics is to acquire Origo Biopharma, a Spanish firm developing organ-restricted small molecule drug candidates targeting the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) pathway for the treatment of fibrosis-related disorders. 28 October 2021
Biotechnology
Japan’s leading drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical today said it is exercising its option to acquire UK-based GammaDelta Therapeutics, an Abingworth portfolio company, focused on exploiting the unique properties of gamma delta (γδ) T cells for immunotherapy. 27 October 2021
Biotechnology
As the pandemic broke, UK pharma major AstraZeneca had the wind in its sales, with a rising stock price and a winning R&D formula. 25 October 2021
Biotechnology
UK-based oligonucleotide synthesis company ATDBio today revealed it has been acquired by the Swedish life sciences company Biotage. 20 October 2021
Pharmaceutical
Californian precision oncology company Calithera Biosciences has padded its pipeline with two assets from Japanese giant Takeda Pharmaceutical. 19 October 2021
Biotechnology
A new biotech company has been launched with the goal of taking on one of the world’s rarest neurodegenerative diseases. 14 October 2021
Biotechnology
US company Pacira Biosciences claims that its acquisition of Flexion Therapeutics has further strengthened its leadership position in non-opioid pain management. 12 October 2021
Pharmaceutical
CNS disease specialist Supernus Pharmaceuticals and fellow USA-based Adamas Pharmaceuticals have entered a definitive agreement for Supernus to acquire Adamas, whose share shot up 75% to $8.07 by close of trading on Monday. 12 October 2021
Biotechnology
Ahead of the potential takeover of Swedish Orphan Biovitrum by private equity firm Advent International and Singapore wealth fund GIC, the Stockholm-based firm has provided details of its financial position. 12 October 2021
Biotechnology
Germany-based biotech atai Life Sciences today announced the launch of PsyProtix, a new platform company formed with Chymia, a Duke University biotechnology spinout. 11 October 2021
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