Deals

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2026 is set to be a banner year for M&A in biopharma, as buyers facing major patent cliffs fight for a small pool of late-stage assets.
Metsera showed the biopharma world that M&A is back. Who could be next?
These deals radically reshaped the biopharma world, either by one vaccine rival absorbing another, a Big Pharma doubling down after another failed acquisition or, in the case of Pfizer and Novo, two heavyweights duking it out over a hot obesity biotech.
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Pfizer called Novo’s offer “reckless and unprecedented,” in a statement issued Thursday morning.
Mergers and acquisitions are not just for Big Pharma. A new report from Leerink Partners takes a stab at identifying the small- to mid-cap pharmas best prepared to bolster their pipelines with a buyout.
Vas Narasimhan confirmed that Novartis is having weekly discussions with the Trump administration on drug pricing, but a deal has not yet been reached.
M&A
The deal, announced early Sunday afternoon, will see Novartis gain access to Avidity’s neuroscience assets, while the San Diego biotech spins out a new company to shepherd its early-stage precision cardiology programs.
The $70 million upfront deal adds to a portfolio of drugs Biogen has been growing in various immunological conditions since 2024.
The cornerstone of the deal is Ixo-vec, an intravitreal gene therapy currently in Phase III development for wet age-related macular degeneration. Eli Lilly made another foray into genetic medicine in June, picking up Verve Therapeutics for up to $1.3 billion.
With Avadel under its fold, Alkermes expects to accelerate its expansion into the sleep market, laying the foundation for its late-stage narcolepsy asset alixorexton.
For $1.2 billion upfront and up to $10.2 billion in milestones, Takeda will gain access to a bispecific antibody fusion protein targeting both the PD-1 and IL-2 pathways, among other assets.
Roche will gain worldwide rights outside of the Greater China region to Hansoh’s HS-20110, an antibody-drug conjugate in early-stage development for colorectal cancer.
The partners have yet to disclose what their priority indications are, though EVOQ’s NanoDisc technology aims to enable the development of potentially curative treatments for autoimmune conditions such as celiac disease and type 1 diabetes.