While partnering activities reached new highs in 2020, Chinese biopharma players found it more difficult to snatch good deals in a more competitive landscape. They now need to act faster and do more preparation work to seize partnering opportunities, panelists said at the Chinabio Partnering Forum.
About 13 years after four MIT graduate students and a computer science professor launched Ginkgo Bioworks Inc., the Boston-based synthetic biology platform business is merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in the largest life sciences deal of its kind to date.
Little more than a year ago, when COVID-19 lockdowns began, turned out to be a prime time for finding the right funding and partners. That’s when privately held Capsigen Inc. was on a search that ended with a Biogen Inc. deal that could add up to $1.3 billion.
DUBLIN – Mina Therapeutics Ltd. continues to make progress in its long-term ambition to establish small activating RNA (saRNA) as a new therapeutic modality. The biotech has now entered a multitarget research collaboration with Eli Lilly and Co., in which it is receiving $25 million up front and up to $245 million in development and commercial milestones per product.
China saw $28.5 billion invested in its life sciences sector in 2020, which was double the previous year’s amount and sets a five-year high. Partnering activities and IPOs also grew exponentially over the last five years to set records.
HONG KONG – Olix Pharmaceuticals Inc. has entered an extensive research collaboration to test its RNAi therapeutic, OLX-104C, with Fimanac, PCI Biotech Holding ASA’s delivery technology for nucleic acid-based therapies, with the aim of reducing off-target effects while treating androgenic alopecia, or hair loss.
As investors await an MAA submission to the EMA for U.S.-approved Mycapssa (octreotide) in acromegaly, Chiasma Inc. disclosed its plan to merge with Amryt plc in an all-stock deal, thereby gaining a global commercial presence. Terms call for the exchange of each Chiasma share for 0.396 American depositary share of Amryt. The latter closed May 4 at $12.95, so the deal values Chiasma at $5.13 per share, an 81% premium over the previous day’s ending price, noted Piper Sandler analyst Edward Tenthoff. The stock (NASDAQ:CHMA) rose $1.14, or 40%, to finish at $3.98.
A prolific builder of biopharma and health technology companies, Roivant Sciences Ltd. is poised to join Nasdaq through a newly proposed merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) sponsored by Patient Square Capital LLC. The deal, which values Roivant at $5 billion, includes $611 million of new money, composed of $411 million held in trust by the SPAC, Montes Archimedes Acquisition Corp., plus $200 million from a committed PIPE financing. The transaction, expected to peg Roivant's initial market cap at $7.3 billion, follows a September 2019 deal in which Roivant sold interests in five biopharmas to Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co. Ltd. (SDP) for $3 billion cash.
In a first for the biotech industry, the European Commission (EC) has imposed a €7.5 million (US$9.05 million) fine on Sigma-Aldrich, under the EU’s 2004 Merger Regulation, for providing incorrect or misleading information during a merger investigation.
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