Gilead, AstraZeneca and Vertex have acquired more than just a therapeutic asset in recent deals. BioSpace takes a look at five recent transactions where the staff was the real centerpiece.
Pharma M&A deals tend to revolve around key assets that can bolster the pipeline and provide growth. But sometimes, the buyer sees a lot more in the expertise within the target organization.
That was the case with Gilead Sciences’ recent acquisition of Tubulis GmbH, where the antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) biotech will be housed as a specialized R&D unit within the parent company and continue to crank out new assets.
With any acquisition, there’s bound to be some redundancies. Often top-level leaders like the CEO move on to lead other companies. But bench-level expertise sometimes can’t be replaced, particularly at platform companies or biotechs developing cutting-edge therapeutics like radiopharmaceuticals.
On the flip side is when a company only wants an asset and none of the staff. That was the case when GSK bought the Canadian chronic cough biotech BELLUS Health for $2 billion in 2023. A year later, almost the entire staff was let go as the P2X3 receptor antagonist camlipixant was integrated into the U.K. pharma’s pipeline.
Below, BioSpace takes a look at recent deals where the staff was just as much of a prize as the assets within the biotech.
Gilead snags an ADC R&D factory thanks to Tubulis
There is nothing hotter in the cancer space than ADCs right now. To get up to speed, Gilead bought Tubulis for $5 billion earlier this month, pledging to tuck the biotech in as a dedicated ADC R&D unit.
Tubulis CEO Dominik Schumacher, who is also co-founder of the German company, said the two companies will work together now to incorporate the biotech’s platform and capabilities into Gilead’s oncology research group.
“We and Gilead believe our team is one of our greatest assets and was an important consideration as part of this transaction,” Schumacher told BioSpace in an email. “We strongly believe that Gilead saw not only the full potential and depth of our pipeline and technologies but also the expertise of our world-class team as a core asset.”
Gilead and Tubulis have worked together since 2024 through a licensing deal. The initial focus post-merger will be on the ovarian cancer asset TUB-040. But Gilead executives were clear that the acquisition offers much more.
“Oncology, ovarian cancer and then other areas in oncology are the first directions, but there is real opportunity to build out and move into inflammation and into virology,” Chief Medical Officer Dietmar Berger said on a conference call discussing Gilead’s recent deal strategy.
CEO Daniel O’Day agreed that bringing the partners together under one wing was the best way to maximize value and blend the scientific expertise on both sides.
“There is no one size fits all for how those partnerships will eventually evolve,” O’Day said. “Some of them we feel just would be helpful for us to fully integrate into the further strength of Gilead.”
Biogen gets launch ready with Apellis
In the $5.6 billion acquisition of Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Biogen wasn’t after the scientists exactly. Those experts had already done their work, bringing kidney disease drug Empaveli and eye disease therapy Syfovre to FDA approval in 2021 and 2023, respectively.
Instead, Biogen wanted Apellis’ nephrology team to help launch an asset from a previous deal called felzartamab, a CD38 targeting antibody being tested in three different kidney diseases.
“We just think that if the clinical trials work out for felzartamab as we hope, that we will have a running start into the launch, and we could actually potentially achieve peak sales faster than we would if we were just doing this on our own,” CEO Chris Viehbacher said on a conference call discussing the deal.
The strategy makes sense. Kidney disease is a new area for Biogen, but not for heavy-hitters like Novartis, which is developing medicines in the space as well. With Apellis’ experience with Empaveli —approved for paroxysmal octurnal hemoglobinuria, C3 glomerulopathyand glomerulonephritis—Biogen will have the expertise to pull off the launch.
“We feel comfortable that we’re going to be able to work with the Apellis teams to really pull the teams together and do even more with these two products than either company could do on their end,” Viehbacher said.
AstraZeneca buys a radiopharma brain trust in Fusion
If you want to develop therapies using radioactive materials, you better find yourself some pros. That’s exactly what AstraZeneca did in 2024, amid a pharma deal craze for radiopharmaceuticals.
The U.K. pharma bought Fusion Pharmaceuticals for $2.4 billion in March 2024, adding on a portfolio of radioconjugate assets including a lead prostate cancer med called FPI-2265. But equally valuable to AstraZeneca were the experts who developed Fusion’s pipeline—and helping to establish a base in Canada.
“The acquisition brings new expertise and pioneering R&D, manufacturing and supply chain capabilities in actinium-based RCs to AstraZeneca,” the pharma said in a statement at the time of the acquisition. “It also strengthens the company’s presence in and commitment to Canada.”
That supply chain aspect is key in radiopharma, where manufacturing has been a top concern for budding biotechs and pharmas in the space. Fusion in particular had an established supply chain of actinium-225, which supported its next-gen radioconjugate platform.
The companies had already worked together, getting to know each other in a licensing collaboration before AstraZeneca ultimately swallowed the biotech whole.
“This acquisition combines Fusion’s expertise and capabilities in radioconjugates, including our industry-leading radiopharmaceutical R&D, pipeline, manufacturing and actinium-225 supply chain, with AstraZeneca’s leadership in small molecules and biologics engineering to develop novel radioconjugates,” Fusion CEO John Valliant said in a statement at the time.
AstraZeneca tucks Amolyt into Alexion to continue rare disease mission
In rare disease, it’s best to go with the pros. That was AstraZeneca’s thinking in March 2024, when Amolyt Pharma was tucked into its existing Alexion rare disease unit for about $1.06 billion.
You may remember Alexion as one of the biggest deals of 2020 at $39 billion, and one where the workforce and footprint were just as important as the assets. The unit has retained the Alexion name since joining the U.K. pharma and Amolyt was purchased to fit neatly inside.
“Alexion is looking forward to welcoming talent from Amolyt Pharma,” AstraZeneca said in a statement at the time of the deal.
Amolyt in particular would boost Alexion’s pipeline beyond complement inhibition and expand on existing work in bone metabolism. Amolyt’s lead asset was eneboparatide, under development for hypoparathyroidism.
“As leaders in rare disease, Alexion is uniquely positioned to drive the late-stage development and global commercialization of eneboparatide,” Alexion CEO Marc Dunoyer said at the time. “We believe this program, together with Amolyt’s talented team, expertise and earlier pipeline, will enable our expansion into rare endocrinology.”
Amolyt CEO Thierry Abribat recently received an award for best biotech exit. The executive credited the Amolyt team, which is still working to get eneboparatide approved.
“This award is first and foremost for the Amolyt Pharma team. A successful exit is fantastic, but it’s not the end of the story. The story will end when our drug candidates are available to patients internationally,” Abribat said in his acceptance speech, translated from French by Google Translate. “The Amolyt Pharma team, now part of Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is working tirelessly every day to complete the development of eneboparatide for the treatment of hypoparathyroidism and to continue developing the other products in our portfolio.”
Vertex anchors pipeline-in-a-product with Alpine team
One of the Holy Grails of pharma is always the pipeline-in-a-product asset—a drug that can be used in multiple indications and secure numerous approvals. That’s what Vertex Pharma was seeking with the $4.9 billion acquisition of Alpine Immune Sciences in April 2024.
At the center of the deal was povetacicept, a dual antagonist of the BAFF and APRIL cytokines believed to activate B cells, under development initially for IgA nephropathy (IgAN).
The deal was a good fit for Vertex, which was looking to pick up assets in specialty markets, CEO Reshma Kewalramani said at the time. But she also credited the Alpine team—specifically welcoming them to Vertex—as well as the potential of the biotech’s protein engineering and immunotherapy capabilities.
Alpine CEO Mitchell Gold said the fit was clear on a person-to-person level, too.
“It became clear during our discussions with the Vertex team that we share many core values, including a commitment to patients, our employees, and an intense drive for innovation,” Gold said in a statement at the time of the deal. “We could not have picked a better steward of povetacicept,” he added after Vertex posted late-stage results for the asset in March.
Honorable mention: Galapagos seeks new employees through acquisitions
This deal has not exactly happened—yet. But Galapagos CEO Henry Gosebruch told BioSpace in January that part of his goal in finding companies to acquire is to retain the workforce. He framed this as a plus in negotiating deals because the target company leadership won’t have to worry about losing staff.
“One of the things we can offer to a potential transaction party is that if there’s a strong R&D team or a strong commercial team, they could, as a full team, come to Galapagos and be our team going forward,” Gosebruch said.
