Novartis AG is paying nearly $1 billion up front to buy privately held Anthos Therapeutics Inc. in a deal that eventually could top out around $3.1 billion. Novartis, coming back to where it started as it and Blackstone Life Sciences founded Anthos in 2019, is entering a crowded space.
BioWorld’s three-part analysis of M&As sought to discover successful transactions and to understand the trend of multibillion-dollar deals that have become commonplace in the last decade. Instead, more than 80% of the acquisitions explored simply indicate that buyers are paying too much, suggesting that transactions meant to restore pipelines and revenues with innovative and marketed products are sometimes akin to high-stakes gambling. In part three, the final part of this series, we examine four more disappointments in which the return on investment (ROI) remains well behind the price paid in acquiring the company.
To say that European investors are optimistic about the outlook for the med-tech sector in 2025 is an understatement. A couple of companies are already listed on public markets, acquisitions have been undertaken and med-tech players with cash-rich balance sheets are on the hunt.
As pulsed field ablation transformed the electrophysiology market over the last year, Boston Scientific Corp. emerged as the biggest winner by far. In its fourth quarter earnings call on Wednesday, the company quantified just how successful its Farapulse PFA system has been.
With multiple large M&A deals already announced in January, CEOs of major med-tech companies outlining acquisition plans for 2025 and declining interest rates, the stage is set for a significantly more active year of M&A. Financings, too, have ticked up and analysts expect the trend to continue, offering hope for a positive year for the med-tech industry.
A pair of investor calls on Jan. 22 added clarity to the rapidly evolving cardiac ablation market with Abbott Laboratories and Johnson & Johnson providing updates on their pulsed field ablation programs. Both outlined challenges in the U.S. market that continue to place them at a disadvantage compared to current market leaders Boston Scientific Corp. and Medtronic plc, though bright spots also shone through.
Yuhan Corp., Oscotec Inc. and Genosco Inc. were three companies with Asian ties to reap benefit from Johnson & Johnson’s stellar top-line Mariposa study results, wherein J&J’s Rybrevant (amivantamab-vmjw) and Lazcluze (lazertinib) combo regimen beat out Astrazeneca plc’s standard of care in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
The sedate uptake of pulsed field ablation (PFA) in Europe failed to presage the enthusiasm that drove the technology’s extraordinarily rapid adoption in the U.S. in 2024. Used to treat atrial fibrillation, PFA received its first U.S. FDA approval in Dec. 2023. At the time, Clarivate estimated that PFA had 7% of the global cardiac ablation market. By year-end 2024, it had 20% and Boston Scientific Corp. projected that PFA would represent up to half of the market by the close of 2025.
The J.P. Morgan (JPM) Healthcare Conference in San Francisco kicked off with a resounding bang as Johnson & Johnson (J&J) disclosed plans to acquire Intra-Cellular Therapies Inc. for $132 per share, which equates to an equity value of about $14.6 billion.
