Mergers & acquisitions
AbbVie on Thursday announced it has acquired Celsius Therapeutics to expand its immunology portfolio with a first-in-class TREM1 inhibitor CEL383, following other big players looking to cash in on the hot immuno market.
The combined company began trading Friday under the Nasdaq symbol TECX. A $130 million private placement was also completed, with a cash runway into mid-2027.
Vanda Pharmaceuticals has rejected two unsolicited takeover offers, saying that they are “opportunistic attempts” to acquire the biotech at a heavily discounted price.
Biogen recently bolstered its pipeline with a potential $1.8 billion acquisition of Human Immunology Biosciences, following other big players looking to cash in on a global immunology market estimated to grow to $257 billion by 2032.
After rejecting a previous takeover offer from Future Pak, Vanda Pharmaceuticals is now fielding another acquisition proposal from Cycle Pharmaceuticals, which values the biotech at $8 per share.
Illumina on Monday announced that its board of directors is spinning off Grail and has applied to list the cancer diagnostics company on the Nasdaq.
Analysts predict a booming year for mergers and acquisitions, powered by obesity drug sales and pressure from upcoming patent expirations.
As evidenced by this week’s buyouts by J&J and Merck, Big Pharma appears to have found a sweet spot favoring smaller deals over megabillion-dollar acquisitions.
Merck on Wednesday announced a deal worth $3 billion to buy EyeBio and its first-in-class trispecific antibody Restoret, marking the pharma’s return to the ophthalmology space after nearly a decade.
Johnson & Johnson’s deal for Numab Therapeutics’ bispecific antibody NM26, slated to enter Phase II studies, comes on the heels of J&J’s $850 million Proteologix bispecific antibody acquisition.
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