Deals
Leading companies spent $1.4 billion upfront on licensing deals and embarked on vast R&D programs. Clinical setbacks mean many companies are unlikely to ever recoup their investments.
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M&A and IPOs got off to a quick start in 2025 only to crash into a wall of policy challenges. Upfront payment for licensing transactions, however, grew as pharmas looked for less-risky deals.
Policy uncertainties are impacting biopharma dealmaking from continent to continent, with companies being asked to walk a tightrope on their relations with China.
As high prices and supply issues drive consumers to alternative markets for GLP-1s, physicians aren’t too interested in using these therapies to treat conditions like heart disease risk that have existing cheap standards of care.
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GSK secures rights to Boston Pharmaceuticals’ efimosfermin alfa, which the pharma plans to develop for fatty liver diseases such as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis and alcohol-related liver disease.
It’s another wild twist in the story of Galapagos, a company that has been around for more than 25 years but has yet to get a therapy approved.
The Alchemab deal will further strengthen Lilly’s early-stage pipeline for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, coming less than a year after the pharma licensed QurAlis’ antisense oligonucleotide to correct a specific protein alteration in ALS.
After multiple rounds of layoffs that cut Kronos down to just 10 people, the small molecule biotech has accepted a buyout offer from Kevin Tang’s Concentra Biosciences.
Announcing first-quarter results, Biogen CEO Chris Viehbacher admitted that tariffs are “a new topic for us,” but said he does not expect major impacts—at least for 2025.
Many companies have foreshadowed deals to come during earnings calls in recent days. The return of M&A would be a welcome sign for the biopharma ecosystem, which has been battered by macro headwinds such as tariffs and the possibility of new drug pricing pressures.
The deal is a blast from the not-too-distant past, when special purpose acquisition companies were an easy way for companies to list on the public market with a bundle of cash to operate on.
Roche’s Genentech is betting on the Flagship Pioneering–founded company’s discovery platform called DECODE to find new targets for an undisclosed autoimmune disorder.
Alis Biosciences’ plan is a familiar tactic in the private equity world, but the firm will instead be listed on the public markets “in due course.”
Despite making an unsolicited bid for gene therapy maker bluebird bio, Ayrmid failed to deliver a binding offer after weeks of due diligence. Bluebird’s board recommended that it go with Carlyle and SK Capital Partner’s original offer to take the company private for $30 million.