Vertex Pharmaceuticals is making the largest acquisition bet in its history, announcing late Monday an agreement to purchase a biotechnology company, Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, that recently brought to market a new kind of medicine for a rare hormonal disorder.
Vertex is paying $85 per share in cash, or $10 billion overall, for Crinetics. The deal ranks as the fourth largest, by total proceeds, in an already busy year for biotech company acquisitions, according to BioPharma Dive data. Additionally, among this year’s buyouts, the 102% premium Vertex is paying trails only the 140% markup in Biogen’s March purchase of Apellis Pharmaceuticals, data show.
Vertex will fund the acquisition with cash on hand and debt. The deal should close in the third quarter, the company said.
The purchase is the latest attempt by Vertex to branch out beyond a cystic fibrosis drug business that regularly brings in more than $10 billion annually. That franchise involves a handful of medicines and has turned Vertex into one of the biopharmaceutical industry’s most valuable companies. But Vertex has had trouble replicating that success elsewhere, leading to persistent questions about its growth and a push by the company to fortify its drug pipeline.
In search of newer products, Vertex has in recent years zeroed in on treatments that can meaningfully affect serious “specialty diseases.” This effort has led to marketed medicines for sickle cell disease and pain and, behind those drugs, a prospect nearing approval for a kind of kidney condition.
The Crinetics deal pushes Vertex into another new area: endocrine disorders. Last September, U.S. regulators cleared a Crinetics drug called Palsonify for an uncommon hormonal condition known as acromegaly. While that drug is very early in its launch, the early signs have been promising, with a $10 million revenue total in the first quarter topping Wall Street projections and regulatory reviews elsewhere ongoing. Consensus estimates have Palsonify generating about $70 million in 2026, and Vertex believes the drug has “blockbuster potential,” the company said in a statement.
Crinetics also has in late-stage development an experimental treatment, atumelnant, for a rare genetic disease called congenital adrenal hyperplasia, or CAH. Vertex claimed that prospect might have even more upside should it succeed in CAH and another disease, Cushing’s syndrome. Atumelmant could “transform the treatment landscape” for CAH, said CEO Reshma Kewalramani, in a statement.
Crinetics’ two drugs could eventually bring in more than $5 billion in peak yearly sales revenue, the company added.
Nonetheless, Vertex shares ticked down slightly in post-market trading following the deal’s announcement. Investors are wary of the high price tag, and specifically whether Vertex “paid full price or even a rich price,” wrote Stifel analyst Paul Matteis.
The deal value “assumes a bullish case outcome” for Crinetics’ drugs even though competition could be a headwind, Matteis wrote. Palsonify is used in a market where Pfizer and Novartis already offer treatments. And atumelnant, if approved, would go up against a Neurocrine Biosciences drug, Crenessity, that’s “launched very well and sets a high bar on safety,” he added.
“The deal is on the higher side on a stock price premium basis and investors will debate this,” wrote William Blair analyst Myles Minter, in a separate note. But “we view this as reasonable if the peak sales number can be achieved.”
