Mergers & acquisitions
Rumors are flying that Paris-based Sanofi has a $50 billion budget for mergers and acquisitions and is taking a look at U.S.-based biotech companies. At the top of the list, reportedly, is South San Francisco-based Principia Biopharma.
Unum Therapeutics announced on Monday that it has successfully completed its acquisition of Kiq LLC, a privately held biotechnology company with a focus on the discovery and development of precision kinase inhibitors.
Today, Gilead announced that it was acquiring a 49.9% equity interest in Pionyr Immunotherapeutics for $275 million and exclusive option to buy the rest of the company.
Under terms of the deal, Novo Nordisk paid $725 million upfront to Sofinnova for the Waltham, Mass.-based Corvidia, a company focused on the development of transformational therapies for cardio-renal diseases.
CSL Behring, based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, is acquiring Vancouver, British Columbia-based Vitaeris. The two companies inked a strategic partnership in 2017 to accelerate the development of Vitaeris’s clazakizumab. At that time, CLS Behring also had an option to acquire Vitaeris, the therapeutic, and the rest of Vitaeris’s assets.
Shares of Gilead Sciences jumped in pre-market trading this weekend following reports that the company has been approached by U.K. pharma giant AstraZeneca regarding a potential merger.
When the transaction is completed, the combined company is expected to have about $200 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities at closing.
Roche hopes to advance the development of its own nanopore sequencer, which would use a new approach combining electronic and biological components to sequence DNA quickly and at low cost.
Xenotransplant company eGenesis snapped up a key manufacturing partner ICBiotec in order to vertically integrate its xeno-organ production capabilities.
Petros will be helmed by Charles S. Ryan, who currently serves as chief executive officer of Neurotrope.
PRESS RELEASES