Pharma & Biotech Mergers & Acquisitions News
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
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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
Biotechnology
Last week Vertex Pharmaceuticals released positive Phase III results for its suzetrigine for moderate-to-severed pain. Belgium’s UCB revealed that Swiss pharma giant Roche was terminating its collaboration on the Alzheimer’s candidate bepranemab. The UK’s health technology assessor the Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) declined to recommend a second Alzheimer’s treatment, this time Eli Lilly’s Kisunla. Also of note, Lyell Immunopharma announced its planned acquisition of ImmPACT Bio and reprioritization of its own clinical pipeline. 27 October 2024
Biotechnology
California, USA-based Lyell Immunopharma (Nasdaq: LYEL) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held US CAR-T company ImmPACT Bio. 26 October 2024
Biotechnology
Mumbai-based Mankind Pharma has completed its acquisition of Bharat Serums and Vaccines (BSV), adding to its portfolio in the women’s health and fertility market. 24 October 2024
Biotechnology
Ocuphire Pharma has announced its acquisition of Opus Genetics, a clinical-stage gene therapy company focused on treating inherited retinal diseases. 24 October 2024
Biotechnology
Connecticut, USA-based Modifi Biosciences today announced that the company has been acquired by pharma giant Merck & Co 23 October 2024
Pharmaceutical
Melbourne, Australia-based Telix Pharmaceuticals has announced the launch of Rhine Pharma, a subsidiary aimed at increasing global access to radiopharmaceuticals for cancer treatment and imaging. 22 October 2024
Pharmaceutical
French pharma major Sanofi has opened negotiations to sell a 50% controlling stake in its consumer health business Opella to US private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CD&R). 21 October 2024
Pharmaceutical
Last week’s significant news included Denmark-based CNS drugmaker Lundbeck reaching agreement to acquire US firm Longboard Pharmaceuticals, along with its bexicaserin, for $2.6 billion. Also, US pharma giant Pfizer entered into a deal with TRIANA Biomedicines to develop molecular glue degraders. On the regulatory front, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week approved Novocure’s key product Optune Lua for lung cancer patients. Also, German biotech BioNTech and its US partner OncoC4 received a partial clinical hold from the FDA on the Phase III trial of gotistobart in lung cancer. The European Medicines Agency’s human health committee, CHMP, Reaffirmed its non-approval of PTC Therapeutic’s Translarna. 20 October 2024
Biotechnology
Taiwan-based REGiMMUNE, a biopharma creating immunotherapies through the power of regulatory T cells (Tregs), and France-based Kiji Therapeutics, a specialist in induced pluripotent stem cells-mesenchymal stem cells (IPSC-MSC) engineered cell therapies for inflammatory diseases, are to merge. 18 October 2024
Biotechnology
Danish CNS specialist Lundbeck today revealed that it has reached to acquire Longboard Pharmaceuticals. 15 October 2024
Biotechnology
USA-based Kezar Life Sciences announced this week that it was pausing its Phase IIb PALIZADE trial evaluating zetomipzomib in lupus nephritis (LN) following the deaths of four patients. 10 October 2024
Pharmaceutical
Russian financial conglomerate Sistema PJSFC today announced it has acquired an equity interest in JSC Pharmaceutical Enterprise Obolenskoe (OBL Pharm), a leading Russian pharmaceutical company. 28 December 2018
Pharmaceutical
Regulatory news last week included the surprise decision by Swiss pharma giant to withdraw the marketing authorization application for its canakinumab, already marketed as Ilaris for the treatment of cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome, as a treatment for stroke and heart attack. On a more positive note, the UK’s AstraZeneca gained the first approval of its kidney disease drug roxadustat, co-developed with FibroGen, in China. On the M&A front, there was GlaxoSmithKline’s decision to merge its consumer health business that with US giant Pfizer, with the intention to split the drugmaker into two separate listed companies in three years time. Deal-making included Gilead Sciences gaining rights to Scholar Rock’s non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) program. 23 December 2018
Pharmaceutical
In what was a busy week for the Italian drugmaker, Recordati (RECI: MI) reached an agreement for the acquisition of 100% of the share capital of Tonipharm, a French company based in Boulogne-Billancourt near Paris, active mainly in the self-medication market with over-the-counter (OTC) products. 22 December 2018
Biotechnology
Swiss pharma giant Novartis has revealed that it has made an offer to acquire CellforCure from French biologics company LFB. 20 December 2018
Pharmaceutical
Predicting a year in pharma is difficult at the best of times, but in an era of enormous uncertainty – with politics in established markets as impulsive as it is divisive – it's hard to know what drugmakers will have to deal with in 2019, and how their strategies will play out. 20 December 2018
Pharmaceutical
Confirming recent rumors, US pharma major Bristol-Myers Squibb says that Japan’s Taisho Pharmaceutical has offered to purchase its UPSA consumer health business for $1.6 billion. 19 December 2018
Pharmaceutical
GlaxoSmithKline and US giant Pfizer this morning announced their intention to combine their consumer health businesses into a new world-leading joint venture, with combined sales of approximately £9.8 billion ($12.7 billion). 19 December 2018
Biosimilars
Icelandic biopharmaceutical company Alvotech announced today that Japan-based Fuji Pharma has acquired a 4.2% stake in the business for around $50 million. 17 December 2018
Pharmaceutical
Australia’s Sigma Healthcare saw its shares rocket 43% to A$0.58 today after drug distributor Australian Pharmaceutical Industries (API) notched up a 13% stake in its rival and unveiled a $726 million indicative takeover bid. API’s shares closed up 8.50% at A$1.59. 14 December 2018
Biotechnology
Having taken an exclusive option to acquire US biotech firm Potenza Therapeutics back in 2015, as part of a research collaboration, Japanese pharma major Astellas Pharma yesterday closed the transaction. 14 December 2018
Pharmaceutical
The downturn seen in the pharma and biotech sectors in the past few months of 2018 looks set to continue into 2019, with investors in the industry likely to become more cautious. 13 December 2018
Pharmaceutical
The runaway success of Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin) ensured the future of Seattle Genetics as an antibody-drug conjugate specialist, but chief executive Clay Siegall has bigger ideas about the breadth of focus for the growing company. 13 December 2018
Generics
Activity in the pharma sector is rife in India, with mergers and acquisition deal values doubling given revived domestic and cross-border deal activity. Technology in the form of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data has also come to the aid of the pharmaceutical industry, reports The Pharma Letter’s India correspondent. 12 December 2018
Biotechnology
USA-based HiFiBiO Therapeutics has today announced the formation of Victa Biotherapeutics, a joint venture with Vikas Sukhatme, Robert W Woodruff Professor of Medicine and Dean of Emory University School of Medicine. 11 December 2018
Pharmaceutical
Among pharma M&A news last week, the big story was GlaxoSmithKline’s $5.1 billion acquisition of Tesaro and its cancer drug Zejula. On the licensing front, J&S’s Janssen unit struck a deal to develop argenx’ blood cancer drug cusatuzumab that could be worth $1.6 billion. Also, Revance Therapeutics’ China out-licensing deal for its Botox rival RT002 to Fosun was seen as a positive, as was the latest data from the SAKURA 3 trial. There was disappointment for Germany’ Bayer, as it halted a trial of its uterine fibroid candidate vilaprisan following toxicity concerns. 9 December 2018
Generics
Fresenius saw its worst share price fall ever on Friday, after the German healthcare group issued a profit warning, the previous day. Its share plunged 17.71% to 38.00 euros by close. 8 December 2018
Generics
German drugmaker Stada Arzneimittel has increased its indirect shareholding in the Vietnamese pharmaceutical company Pymepharco JSC to 72%, in which it has been a strategic since 2008. 7 December 2018
Pharmaceutical
Shares of US drugmaker Mallinckrodt closed down 6.92% at $21.53 yesterday, after it announced plans to reshape its image. 7 December 2018
Pharmaceutical
The most important M&A news of the month was arguably the giant step taken by Japanese drugmaker Takeda towards taking over rare diseases specialist Shire in the year's biggest deal, with shareholders voting in favor of the acquisition. 6 December 2018
Biotechnology
UK-based rare and specialty diseases specialist Mereo BioPharma and US oncology focused OncoMed Pharmaceuticals today announce the proposed combination of the companies. 5 December 2018
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