Just as financings are hitting record levels, biopharma deals should finish out 2020 on top, based on solid partnerships signed in the first three quarters of the year. While mergers and acquisitions have slowed this year, particularly in the third quarter, several big-money M&As slated to close in the fourth quarter could move the needle, putting this year within the top three highest values.
Hologic Inc., which focuses on women's health, reported Aug. 25 that it was acquiring Acessa Health Inc., a company that has developed a minimally invasive treatment for fibroids. It is offering about $80 million in cash plus contingent payments based on future revenue growth.
Continuing a trend that began in June, the largest biopharma deals of 2020 have all occurred this summer, led by the $6.3 billion global partnership on cancer immune therapies between Tango Therapeutics Inc. and Gilead Sciences Inc. earlier this month.
The pace of biopharma mergers and acquisitions has quickened with Johnson & Johnson’s $6.5 billion all-cash acquisition of Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc. Bringing Momenta into the fold strengthens the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson’s immune-mediated disease portfolio and grows its interest in autoantibody-driven disease therapies.
The top two biggest money biopharma deals in 2020 occurred in June, putting the month ahead of all other months for the year in terms of deal values and volumes.
Despite the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, biopharma dealmaking values in the second quarter of 2020 increased by 22.4% since the first quarter, and M&A values – thanks to Abbvie Inc. completing in May its $63 billion buyout of Allergan plc – are at a four-year high. A total of 529 deals, including licensings, collaborations and joint ventures, reported during the second quarter had projected values of nearly $49 billion, a step up from the 471 deals and $40.8 billion value of the first quarter.
When BIO 2019 closed its doors in Philadelphia last June, none of the delegates of the industry’s largest event would have predicted that the next meeting, scheduled for San Diego, would be canceled and the event would be transformed into a virtual version. In just a few months, the COVID-19 pandemic has decimated our normal way of life and, until effective therapeutics and vaccines become available, how we conduct the business of biotechnology will remain radically different. This will be one of the many themes explored during BIO Digital Week that kicked off today.
