February 2019 pharmaceutical M&A round-up

1 March 2019

Perhaps the most noteworthy news on the M&A front in February was the emergence of major opposition to Bristol-Myers Squibb's (NYSE: BMY) proposed $74 billion mega-merger with Celgene (Nasdaq: CELG).

But the month also brought some important new M&A deals too, with Roche (ROG: SIX) and Ipsen (Euronext: IPN) both announcing proposed buys that go into the billions. The table below gives of an overview:

Company	Takeover candidate	Value	Why?
Neuraxpharm Group	Farmax	Undiscolsed	To strengthen Neuraxpharm's position in the European CNS market and provide direct access to the Central and Eastern European markets
Bharat Biotech	Chiron Behring Vaccines	Undisclosed	To enable Bharat to become the world's largest manufacturer of rabies vaccines
Roche	Spark Therapeutics	$4.3 billion	To add to Roche’s franchise in hemophilia while giving access to a platform with a proven track record for getting gene therapy to the market
Ipsen	Clementia Pharmaceuticals	$1.31 billion	To acquire Clementia’s key late-stage clinical asset palovarotene, a retinoic acid receptor gamma selective agonist, for the treatment of fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, multiple osteochondromas and other diseases
Sarepta Therapeutics	Myonexus Therapeutics	Undisclosed	To acquire a company focused on developing innovative therapies in neuropsychiatry and with the NMDA antagonist arketamine (PCN 101), a single isomer of ketamine, as its lead candidate.

This article is accessible to registered users, to continue reading please register for free. A free trial will give you access to exclusive features, interviews, round-ups and commentary from the sharpest minds in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology space for a week. If you are already a registered user please login. If your trial has come to an end, you can subscribe here.

Try before you buy

Free

7 day trial access

Take a Free Trial

All the news that moves the needle in pharma and biotech
Exclusive features, podcasts, interviews, data analyses and commentary from our global network of life sciences reporters.
Receive The Pharma Letter daily news bulletin, free forever.

Become a subscriber

£820

Or £77 per month

Subscribe Now

Unfettered access to industry-leading news, commentary and analysis in pharma and biotech.
Updates from clinical trials, conferences, M&A, licensing, financing, regulation, patents & legal, executive appointments, commercial strategy and financial results.
Daily roundup of key events in pharma and biotech.
Monthly in-depth briefings on Boardroom appointments and M&A news.
Choose from a cost-effective annual package or a flexible monthly subscription

The Pharma Letter is an extremely useful and valuable Life Sciences service that brings together a daily update on performance people and products. It’s part of the key information for keeping me informed

Chairman, Sanofi Aventis UK