Deals
Right after reporting a major Phase 3 LAG-3 miss that has rattled analysts, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals revealed a back-loaded partnership with Parabilis Medicines aimed at adding a new drug class to its early-stage pipeline.
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With six acquisitions already this year, Eli Lilly’s business development shows no signs of stopping as executives make good on a promise to spend their GLP-1 gains.
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.
Gilead Sciences has inked three deals this year so far totaling $14.77 billion, a marked escalation of the company’s usual M&A pace. Executives detailed the rationale for buying Arcellx, Ouro Medicine and Tubulis GmbH and whether they are interested in further deals.
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Johnson and Johnson kicked off first-quarter earnings season with a “modest” beat and an ambitious goal; Replimune failed again to gain approval for its advanced melanoma therapy, as analysts tout increased accountability brought by the FDA’s new policy of publicizing complete response letters; and Revolution Medicines’ pancreatic cancer candidate doubled survival in one of cancer’s most intractable foes.
Eli Lilly is putting its obesity windfall to work again, striking a new deal to acquire CrossBridge Bio, a small Texas biotech known for its cancer tech.
The licensing deal marks AbbVie’s first foray into new pain medicines, a space where Vertex currently enjoys a lead thanks to the NaV1.8 inhibitor Journavx.
Telix is Regeneron’s entry ticket into the radiopharma game, helping to better round out the company’s cancer portfolio, according to Truist Securities.
Roche is jumping into degrader-antibody conjugates, a modality that in recent years has attracted investments from Merck KGaA and Bristol Myers Squibb.
Another bidder, which remains unidentified, dropped out of the bidding process. Analysts at William Blair now think it unlikely that another suitor could offer a counter-proposal to Merck’s outstanding $6.7 billion acquisition offer.
The approval of Eli Lilly’s oral obesity drug officially ignites an intense competition with Novo Nordisk’s oral Wegovy; Gilead Sciences and Neurocrine Biosciences keep the M&A train chugging; Trump hits pharma with his long promised tariffs, and the FDA proposes many changes with 2027 budget.
The acquisition of Tubulis GmbH—Gilead Sciences’ latest of the year after buying Arcellx and Ouro Medicines—brings into the fold a novel ovarian cancer candidate that has demonstrated promising mid-stage data.
While an acquisition is a good exit for Soleno Therapeutics, the company’s acceptance of Neurocrine Biosciences’ $53-per-share offer came as a surprise to Stifel analysts given the potential growth of Vykat XR, approved last year for extreme hunger in patients with Prader-Willi syndrome.
Takeda and Denali Therapeutics first partnered in early 2018 to advance drugs for neurodegenerative diseases. One asset, for Alzheimer’s disease, was previously discontinued after an FDA hold and disappointing early data.