April round-up of pharmaceutical & biotech M&A activity

1 May 2018

In pharma M&A terms, this month, and possibly this year, will be best remembered as when Ireland-headquartered rare diseases company Shire (LSE: SHP) finally succumbed to the advances of Japanese pharma major Takeda (TYO: 4502).

But it was a month when a lot more deals happened, too, as our table below shows:

Company	Takeover candidate	Value	Why?
Agilent	Lasergen	$105 million	A commitment to DNA sequencing technology
UCB	Element Genomics	$30 million	To strengthen UCB's position in genomics and epigenomics
Ferring Pharmaceuticals	Rebiotix	Not disclosed	To further Ferring's understanding of the human microbiome and give the company rights to RBX2660, which could prove to be the first human microbiome product approved anywhere, and other projects
Novartis	AveXis	$8.7 billion	To give Novartis rights to AveXis' work in treating SMA, an inherited neurodegenerative disease, and to a gene therapy platform
ImmunoPrecise Antibodies	ModiQuest Research	7 million euros ($8.6 million)	To create a single CRO providing services across the full antibody discovery value chain
Promethera Biosciences	Baliopharm	Not disclosed	To complement Promethera’s pipeline with an innovative antibody-based drug candidate that specifically binds to the tumor necrosis factor receptor 1, diversifying its therapeutic strategy in NASH
Orchard Therapeutics	GlaxoSmithKline's rare disease gene therapy portfolio	A 19.9% equity stake in Orchard	To strenghten Orchard’s position in gene therapies for rare diseases, as GSK looks to prune its pharmaceuticals portfolio
Alexion Pharmaceuticals	Wilson Therapeutics	7.1 billion Swedish kronor ($855 million)	To acquire novel therapies for patients with rare copper-mediated disorders including the lead candidate WTX101, which is in Phase III development as a treatment for Wilson disease
Deinove	Biovertis	'Contribution in kind’ transaction valued at around 900,000 euros ($1.1 million)	To give Deinove rights to the antibiotic candidate MCB3837, which is about to enter Phase II testing as a treatment for severe clostridium difficile gastrointestinal infections
Servier	Shire's oncology business	$2.4 billion	To enable Servier to meet its strategic ambitions to become a global key player in oncology, while Shire seeks to offload a business that is not deemed key to its long-term strategy
Advent International	Zentiva, Sanofi's European generics business	1.9 billion euros ($2.35 billion)	So Advent can help to build a new, independent, European generics leader
Procter & Gamble	Merck KGaA's global Consumer Health business	3.4 billion euros ($4.2 billion)	To give P&G a sought-after business unit while allowing Merck to further its strategic focus on innovation driven businesses within Healthcare, Life Science and Performance Materials
Takeda	Shire	£46 billion (~$64 billion)	To 'create a truly global, value-based Japanese biopharmaceutical leader'
Nalpropion Pharmaceuticals	Orexigen Therapeutics	‘Stalking horse’ bid worth $75 million	To give Nalpropion rights to the best selling weight loss brand in the USA, while allowing struggling Orexigen to effectively 'sell itself'
Endo International	Somerset Therapeutics	$190 million	To secure for Endo's Par Sterile injectable business Somerset Therapeutics' commercial and pipeline products as well as affiliate Wintac's manufacturing capabilities for those products
United Therapeutics	SteadyMed	$216 million if milestones are met	To give United Therapeutics rights to Trevyent (treprostinil), to add to its pipeline of products to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension

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