Collegium Pharmaceutical Inc. said it plans to acquire all outstanding shares of Biodelivery Sciences International Inc. for $5.60 each, putting the price tag at about $604 million. At the heart of the deal are Biodelivery Sciences' Belbuca (buprenorphine buccal film), a schedule III opioid, and Elyxyb (celecoxib), an oral migraine treatment that gives Collegium a foothold into the neurology market.
An increasing number and rising value of high-money biopharma deals has placed early 2022 above all recent years, even though there are fewer partnerships overall.
Infectious disease specialist Aicuris Anti-infective Cures AG has signed a worldwide license agreement worth up to €100 million (US$114 million) with Hybridize Therapeutics for a potential therapy to prevent BK virus (BKV) infections in immunocompromised patients.
Just weeks after signing a targeted RNA degrader deal with Arrakis Inc., Amgen Inc. has enlisted protein degrader specialist Plexium Inc. to a new deal in the high-profile field. "We're on the cusp of a new era of drug discovery, where medicines could function very differently than conventional ones do today," said Amgen's senior vice president of global research, Ray Deshaies.
LONDON – Another month, another deal for antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) specialist Synaffix BV, which has sealed a $586 million, three-target agreement with Macrogenics Inc. No details of the targets or the indications were disclosed, but Synaffix CEO Peter van de Sande said this is “an important milestone” because it will be the first time the company’s linkers and payloads have been attached to a bispecific antibody.
Mersana Therapeutics Inc. has signed a potential billion-dollar agreement with Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Biotech Inc. to research and develop antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for three cancer targets. Janssen will pay $40 million up front as well as more than $1 billion in potential milestone payments in a big day for ADCs, which saw Mersana’s other development partner, Synaffix BV, announce a tie-up with Macrogenics, Inc. in a deal worth up to $586 million.
Gilead Sciences Inc. is making a one-time $1.25 billion payment, with a commitment for a royalty that analysts predict could add as much $1.5 billion more, to Viiv Healthcare Ltd., in a deal designed to resolve all global pending or potential patent infringement claims relating to sales of HIV drug Biktarvy (bictegravir/emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide). The initial payment, recorded in the fourth quarter of 2021, put a significant dent in Gilead’s earnings per share but removes the uncertainty of a trial outcome and clears the way for future bictegravir-containing products.
Samsung Biologics Co. Ltd. has agreed to buy out Biogen Inc.’s stake in the joint venture Samsung Bioepis Co. Ltd. for $2.3 billion. Biogen will receive $1 billion in cash at closing and $1.25 billion in deferred payments of $812.5 million due at the first anniversary and $437.5 million due at the second anniversary of the closing of the transaction. Biogen is also expected to receive up to $50 million upon achievement of certain commercial milestones.
Several pharma companies think that targeting a rogue protein known as alpha-synuclein could be the key to halting or reversing neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease – but has the industry learned from a string of failures in Alzheimer’s? In the space of a few weeks, Novartis AG and Sanofi AS have signed major deals for molecules targeting misfolded alpha-synuclein, the rogue protein thought to be the root cause of Parkinson’s disease.
Market pressure for M&As in the life sciences sector and the U.S. government’s determination to crack down on anything that smells of antitrust could be on a collision course this year that’s likely to result in injunctions and a lot more litigation.
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