Deals: Page 3
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Obesity drugs
AbbVie gets into obesity with $350M deal for once-weekly shot
A licensing deal with Denmark’s Gubra gives the immunology giant control of an experimental therapy that could compete with drugs from Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly and Zealand.
By Jonathan Gardner • March 3, 2025 -
AstraZeneca deepens China presence with FibroGen deal
The $160 million acquisition of a FibroGen subsidiary expands AstraZeneca’s foothold in China while the company works through government investigations into its business practices there.
By Kristin Jensen • Feb. 20, 2025 -
Trump administration
FTC retains stricter merger guidelines under Trump
Agency chair Andrew Ferguson sent a memo to staff on Tuesday clarifying that Biden-era guidelines will remain in place — for now.
By Rebecca Pifer • Feb. 19, 2025 -
Biogen buys rights to Stoke’s rare epilepsy drug
In exchange for $165 million, Biogen now has access to zorevunersen, a potential first-of-its-kind treatment for Dravet syndrome.
By Jacob Bell • Feb. 18, 2025 -
Novartis pays $925M to reel in a startup it helped launch
The acquisition of Anthos Therapeutics could be worth up to $3.1 billion and returns to Novartis a blood thinner it licensed to the Blackstone-backed startup six years ago.
By Ben Fidler • Feb. 11, 2025 -
Deep Dive // China competition
‘The bar has risen’: China’s biotech gains push US companies to adapt
Pharma dealmaking for drugs invented in China is putting pressure on U.S. biotechs to compete harder, according to investors and executives interviewed by BioPharma Dive earlier this year.
By Ben Fidler • Jan. 16, 2025 -
Q&A
Roche’s new deals head tries to navigate a more ‘complicated’ and ‘expensive’ biotech world
Roche's core research spans five large areas. Boris Zaïtra, who now leads corporate business development, is confident his team of dealmakers can juggle them.
By Jacob Bell • Jan. 16, 2025 -
At JPM, Biogen CEO tries to take down the deal temperature
While Biogen has made an opportunistic bid for partner Sage, its top executive seemed to play down the urgency for his company to go after larger deals.
By Jacob Bell • Jan. 15, 2025 -
Brain drug revival
Biogen’s ‘cold and calculated’ offer to buy Sage receives a mixed reaction on Wall Street
Analysts say the deal, which would give Biogen full control over the drug Zurzuvae, could be a smart financial move. Yet it's also unlikely to appease broader investor concerns.
By Jacob Bell • Jan. 13, 2025 -
Lilly pads cancer drug pipeline with Scorpion deal
The pharma will spend up to $2.5 billion to acquire an experimental PI3K inhibitor from Scorpion, which will spin out a new company holding its employees and other assets.
By Ben Fidler • Jan. 13, 2025 -
Brain drug revival
J&J to buy psychiatric drug developer Intra-Cellular for $14.6B
Intra-Cellular has had success selling Caplyta, a brain-rebalancing drug that's approved to treat schizophrenia and bipolar depression.
By Ned Pagliarulo , Jacob Bell • Updated Jan. 13, 2025 -
Merck moves into obesity with deal for Hansoh’s GLP-1 pill
News of Merck’s licensing of Hansoh’s preclinical medicine pressured shares in Viking and other obesity drug developers seen as likely buyout targets.
By Jonathan Gardner • Dec. 18, 2024 -
Novo Holdings’ purchase of Catalent set to close after regulators’ green light
The $16.5 billion take-private deal can now be completed, along with Novo Nordisk’s related acquisition of three Catalent drug manufacturing plants.
By Ned Pagliarulo • Dec. 16, 2024 -
AbbVie to acquire Roche spinout Nimble in immune drug deal
The pharma will pay $200 million to buy Nimble and a preclinical oral drug that blocks a protein known as IL-23 — the target of AbbVie’s injection Skyrizi.
By Ned Pagliarulo • Dec. 13, 2024 -
GSK taps a startup for shot at Alzheimer’s drug
The collaboration deal, which could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, is a “pivotal moment” for Muna Therapeutics, a startup that launched less than four years ago.
By Jacob Bell • Dec. 5, 2024 -
ALS drug development
Dewpoint, Mitsubishi partner on ALS drug in deal worth up to $480M
The collaboration is another vote of confidence in Dewpoint’s biomolecular condensates research, which had already attracted interest from the likes of Bayer and Novo Nordisk.
By Jacob Bell • Dec. 4, 2024 -
Coherus, sharpening immuno-oncology focus, sells another biosimilar for over $500M
The company reached a deal to divest its third biosimilar this year, selling a copycat version of Amgen’s Neulasta for up to $558 million.
By Delilah Alvarado • Dec. 3, 2024 -
Novartis wagers billions of dollars on PTC Huntington’s drug
At the center of a new licensing deal is an experimental medicine, PTC518, which is currently being tested in a roughly 250-person study that should produce results next year.
By Jacob Bell • Dec. 2, 2024 -
Pharma hopes Trump will bring change to the FTC. They may be disappointed.
Some in the drug industry expect more lenient merger enforcement under a second Trump administration. One former regulator argues that might not be the case.
By Kelly Bilodeau • Nov. 27, 2024 -
Sarepta rebuilds drug pipeline with Arrowhead deal
A broad licensing and research alliance will hand Sarepta four clinical-stage candidates, while Arrowhead receives $500 million in cash and another $325 million in equity investment.
By Ned Pagliarulo • Nov. 27, 2024 -
Roche to buy cell therapy developer Poseida for $1B
The deal suggests Roche sees substantial promise in Poseida’s technology, as the offer is 215% above the biotech’s closing share price on Monday.
By Jacob Bell • Nov. 26, 2024 -
Novartis wagers more than $1B on gene therapies for the nervous system
In buying Westlake-backed Kate Therapeutics, Novartis gets a handful of preclinical gene therapies targeting diseases like Duchenne muscular dystrophy and myotonic dystrophy type 1.
By Jacob Bell • Updated Nov. 21, 2024 -
BioNTech to buy Biotheus, gaining control of cancer bispecific
Biotheus’ antibody drug targets PD-L1 and VEGF, a design that’s high on drugmakers’ radars after the success of Summit Therapeutics’ ivonescimab.
By Jonathan Gardner • Nov. 13, 2024 -
Novo inks Ascendis deal to develop long-acting GLP-1, other metabolic drugs
Per terms, Novo could pay up to $285 million in upfront and milestone fees to Ascendis, which specializes in a kind of drug-enhancing technology.
By Jonathan Gardner • Nov. 4, 2024 -
GSK to pay $300M to license drug it sees as potential lupus treatment
The deal with China’s Chimagen Biosciences is the latest example of pharma interest in exploring the potential of “T cell engagers” in autoimmune disease.
By Ned Pagliarulo • Oct. 29, 2024