Mergers & acquisitions
The acquisition of breakout obesity star Metsera should pump new life into Pfizer’s portfolio, which over the last two years has suffered from three discontinued assets.
The star of the acquisition, which includes a contingent value right of $6 per share, is pegozafermin, an FGF21 analog in late-stage development for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis.
This week’s release of the Make America Health Again report revealed continued emphasis on vaccine safety; Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s faceoff with senators last week amounted to political theater; the FDA promises complete response letters in real time and shares details on a new rare disease framework; and Summit disappoints at the World Conference on Lung Cancer in Barcelona.
Contingent value rights are rising in a down market, helping to close the gap between buyer and seller expectations in biotech transactions.
Executives at Novartis have not been shy about a desire to buy more companies, with cardiovascular a big focus. In total, the Swiss pharma has put $17.23 billion on the line in M&A and licensing deals this year.
Novartis has been investing heavily in its cardiovascular pipeline this year, forging partnerships with Flagship startup ProFound Therapeutics and China’s Argo Biopharmaceutical, among others.
KER-0193 is a modulator of ion channels connected to autism spectrum disorder. The FDA bestowed orphan drug and rare pediatric drug designations on the candidate earlier this year.
Eli Lilly drops a second Phase III readout for orforglipron; AbbVie committed to the psychedelic therapeutics space with the $1.2 billion acquisition of Gilgamesh’s depression asset; the CDC taps vaccine skeptic Retsef Levi to lead its COVID-19 immunization working group; and the FDA prioritizes overall survival in cancer drug development.
The deal extends AbbVie’s commitment to the psychedelics space and depression, after emraclidine’s high-profile flop in schizophrenia last November.
After a slow 2024, the biotech shell company Concentra Biosciences is back, offering to buy four biotechs in the past month and seven so far this year.
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