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
Biotechnology
San Diego, USA-based Escient Pharmaceuticals launched yesterday with the completion of a $40 million Series A financing to advance first-in-class G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)-targeted drugs to address serious, unserved medical needs across a broad range of therapeutic indications. 10 May 2018
Generics
Indian generics drugmaker Strides Arcolab will soon have a controlling interest in the largest player in the Australian generics market. 9 May 2018
Biotechnology
Horizon Discovery’s announcement on the identity of its new chief executive on Monday has been followed on Tuesday by a major drop in the share price of the gene editing company. 9 May 2018
Pharmaceutical
Takeda and Shire have reached agreement on the Japanese pharma major’s takeover of the rare disease drugmaker. 8 May 2018
Pharmaceutical
News in the past week featured two exciting sets of research results, with Allergan reporting positive Phase III trial results for its migraine drug candidate ubrogepant and mid-stage reports on Karyopharm’s selinexor in multiple myeloma. On the regulatory front, Novartis gained an additional approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for Kymriah in lymphoma, but this has raised questions. There was also a nice surprise for Portola Pharmaceuticals, with long-awaited approval for its anticoagulant reversal agent AndexXa. Also attracting comment was the decision of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals to split into two separate businesses. 6 May 2018
Pharmaceutical
Ironwood Pharmaceuticals’ shares climbed 5%, to about $19 apiece, in midday trading on Tuesday, after it announced that its board of directors has authorized an intent to separate into two independent, publicly traded companies (Ironwood and “R&D Co”). 3 May 2018
Biotechnology
Privately-held USA-based biotech BeneVir has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Janssen Biotech, part of US healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson. 2 May 2018
Pharmaceutical
UK life science research tool specialist Abcam today revealed that, in mid-April, it made a proposal to acquire peer Horizon Discovery at 181 pence a share, which the latter’s board has today rejected. 2 May 2018
Pharmaceutical
In pharma M&A terms, this month, and possibly this year, will be best remembered as when Ireland-headquartered rare diseases company Shire finally succumbed to the advances of Japanese pharma major Takeda. 1 May 2018
Biotechnology
Shares in specialty Israeli pharma SteadyMed closed 77% up at $4.70 on Monday with the news that it is to be acquired by US drugmaker United Therapeutics. 1 May 2018
Pharmaceutical
The European Commission has conditionally approved under the EU Merger Regulation the acquisition of parts of Bayer's Crop Science business by fellow Germany-based BASF. 30 April 2018
Generics
The US Federal Trade Commission will require generic drug marketers privately-held Amneal Pharmaceuticals and Impax Laboratories to divest Impax’ rights and assets for 10 products to three other companies, as part of a settlement resolving charges that Amneal’s $1.45 billion acquisition of an equity share in Impax, announced last October, likely would be anticompetitive. 30 April 2018
Pharmaceutical
Ireland-incorporated Endo International has reached definitive agreements to acquire USA-based specialty pharma company Somerset Therapeutics. 26 April 2018
Pharmaceutical
US obesity-focused biopharma company Orexigen Therapeutics (Nasdaq: OREX) has entered into an asset purchase agreement with Nalpropion Pharmaceuticals to sell substantially all of the assets of the company, subject to court approval. 25 April 2018
Pharmaceutical
After a four-week courtship and four rebuttals, Shire has finally succumbed to Takeda Pharmaceutical’s fifth offer to acquire the Ireland-based rare diseases company. 25 April 2018
Pharmaceutical
Mid-afternoon on Tuesday, a tersely-worded statement from takeover target Shire revealed the London-listed firm had received a fifth offer from Takeda Pharmaceutical. 24 April 2018
Generics
Specialty generic drugmaker Akorn is crying foul at news which sent its share price sliding by 30% on Monday. 23 April 2018
Pharmaceutical
Japanese drug major Shionogi is to establish a new subsidiary in its native country to take on the group’s manufacturing functions. 23 April 2018
Pharmaceutical
Mergers and acquisitions were again in the spotlight last week, first with Shire’s decision to offload its non-core oncology business to France’s Servier for $2.4 billion in cash, which prompted questions on what Takeda, which had expressed interest in buying Shire, and last week quickly fired off four escalating offers for the company. Among licensing deals, Biogen expanded its collaboration with Ionis Pharmaceuticals on neurological diseases. On the research front, Merck & Co presented ‘practice-changing’ new data on Keytruda in lung cancer, and in terms of regulatory news, there was Food and Drug Administration approval for Ultragenyx’ rare disease drug Crysvita. 22 April 2018
Pharmaceutical
On the day that Takeda and Shire confirmed that they had been in talks about the Japanese company’s proposals to take over the rare disease specialist, Ireland-incorporated drugmaker Allergan has put out a statement saying that it too is weighing up a bid. 19 April 2018
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