Deals: Page 2
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BioAge raises $170M to back Phase 2-ready obesity drug
BioAge’s Series D will fund a study combining its medicine with Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, a strategy the company hopes could help people lose weight while maintaining muscle mass.
By Jonathan Gardner • Feb. 13, 2024 -
Gilead to buy CymaBay in $4.3B deal for liver disease drug
The proposed acquisition is a bet on CymaBay’s drug seladelpar, which is now under FDA review in a chronic liver disease called primary biliary cholangitis.
By Ned Pagliarulo • Feb. 12, 2024 -
Trendline
Biotech dealmaking
Acquisitions of biotech companies have picked up in recent quarters, suggesting depressed valuations may be facilitating deal conversations. Read this trendline for a look at the factors impacting M&A.
By BioPharma Dive staff -
BridgeBio sells partial rights to dwarfism drug for $100M
The deal hands Kyowa Kirin rights in Japan to the drug, which is emerging as a potential rival to BioMarin’s marketed medicine Voxzogo.
By Delilah Alvarado • Feb. 7, 2024 -
AstraZeneca to invest $300M in US cell therapy plant
The UK drugmaker is adding a facility in Rockville, Maryland, after a spate of dealmaking in the therapeutic field.
By Kristin Jensen • Feb. 7, 2024 -
MorphoSys to sell to Novartis for $2.9B, offload cancer drug to Incyte
The deals would hand Novartis a myelofibrosis drug with uncertain regulatory prospects and Incyte a marketed lymphoma medicine that hasn’t sold well.
By Ben Fidler • Feb. 6, 2024 -
Obesity drugs
Novo Holdings to buy contract drugmaker Catalent for $16.5B
In a related deal, Novo Holdings subsidiary Novo Nordisk will buy three major Catalent factories for $11 billion as it works to keep pace with demand for its obesity and diabetes medicines.
By Jonathan Gardner • Feb. 5, 2024 -
Valneva sells regulatory ‘fast pass’ for $103M
The company said it will invest the sale proceeds into testing of an experimental Lyme disease shot and of Ixchiq, its new chikungunya vaccine.
By Delilah Alvarado • Feb. 5, 2024 -
Takeda pays $300M to license Protagonist drug for blood disorder
The agreement gives Protagonist an experienced partner in Takeda, which should help the former commercialize its polycythemia vera treatment.
By Kristin Jensen • Feb. 1, 2024 -
Roche shuffles early stage pipeline as it joins obesity rush
Roche said it was shelving those drugs in favor of experimental programs to treat obesity that it gained from its takeover of Carmot Therapeutics.
By Jonathan Gardner • Feb. 1, 2024 -
Avrobio’s road ends in reverse merger with Tim Springer-backed startup
The gene therapy developer’s demise has given Tectonic Therapeutic, a GPCR-focused startup founded by the prolific biotech entrepreneur, an alternate path to the public markets.
By Kristin Jensen • Jan. 31, 2024 -
Gilead deepens investment in Arcus and TIGIT drugs
The companies said the deal shows their “continued conviction in the TIGIT pathway,” an area of research that so far has not lived up to expectations.
By Jonathan Gardner • Jan. 30, 2024 -
RayzeBio drew other pharma interest before Bristol Myers deal
Two “global biopharmaceutical companies” made bids to buy the radiopharma specialist, but lost out to Bristol Myers, which negotiated aggressively to secure a $4.1 billion buyout.
By Ned Pagliarulo • Jan. 25, 2024 -
Novo strikes another obesity drug deal
The partnership with startup EraCal Therapeutics, a spinout of Harvard University and Zurich University, adds another prospect to Novo’s pipeline of weight loss drugs.
By Kristin Jensen • Jan. 24, 2024 -
Sanofi to buy Inhibrx in deal worth up to $2.2B
The acquisition will give Sanofi an experimental drug for alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, while the rest of Inhibrx's assets will be spun into a new company.
By Ned Pagliarulo • Jan. 23, 2024 -
Coherus sells Lucentis biosimilar to Sandoz for $170M
The divestment, which includes sales and reimbursement staff, is part of Coherus’ plan to shift resources toward its R&D work in oncology.
By Delilah Alvarado • Jan. 22, 2024 -
Karuna, Cerevel might be just the start of psychiatry drug M&A
New details of the proposed buyouts show there were multiple interested buyers, which, according to analysts, could set the stage for more dealmaking.
By Jacob Bell • Jan. 22, 2024 -
GSK to buy asthma drug startup Aiolos for $1B
Aiolos, which raised a Series A round three months ago, is developing an antibody that shares a target with Amgen and AstraZeneca’s Tezspire.
By Ned Pagliarulo • Jan. 9, 2024 -
Merck pays $680M for struggling cancer biotech Harpoon
The acquisition will build out Merck’s pipeline of immunotherapies as its top-seller Keytruda nears the end of U.S. market exclusivity.
By Jonathan Gardner • Jan. 8, 2024 -
J&J to acquire ADC drug developer Ambrx for $2B
The proposed takeout follows a spate of dealmaking around antibody-drug conjugates, targeted cancer medicines that have lured AbbVie, Pfizer, Merck and Gilead.
By Ned Pagliarulo • Jan. 8, 2024 -
Bristol Myers to acquire brain drug developer Karuna for $14B
The deal would hand Bristol Myers, which is reprioritizing neuroscience research, an experimental treatment for schizophrenia that analysts think could become a blockbuster product.
By Ned Pagliarulo , Ben Fidler • Updated Dec. 22, 2023 -
J&J bets bigger on MeiraGTx’s eye gene therapy
Ahead of a Phase 3 readout that could come next year, the pharma is paying $130 million in upfront and near-term cash for rights to the retinitis pigmentosa treatment that it didn’t already own.
By Jonathan Gardner • Dec. 21, 2023 -
FTC, DOJ finalize merger guidelines that could impede healthcare deals
The new guidelines may give regulators more ammunition to go after vertical and cross-market M&A that has historically been more difficult to challenge.
By Rebecca Pifer • Dec. 19, 2023 -
Point radiopharma drug results disappoint in prostate cancer study
While the study met its goal, the drug’s benefit was less than analysts had predicted, an outcome that could hasten a planned takeover by Eli Lilly.
By Ned Pagliarulo • Dec. 18, 2023 -
FTC, in unusual move, leads Sanofi to terminate a drug research deal
Just before clearing Pfizer’s buyout of Seagen, the regulator threatened to block Sanofi’s licensing deal with Maze Therapeutics, a challenge the biotech called ‘‘unprecedented.”
By Jonathan Gardner • Dec. 12, 2023 -
AstraZeneca to acquire vaccine maker Icosavax for up to $1.1B
The deal signals the pharma company’s continuing interest in vaccine development and hands it a combination shot aimed at two respiratory viruses.
By Delilah Alvarado • Dec. 12, 2023