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.
HONG KONG – Shionogi & Co. Ltd. has inked a multitarget drug discovery collaboration for Inveniai LLC’s artificial intelligence and machine learning platform Alphameld. Inveniai is eligible to receive up to $200 million per program through a combination of up-front payments, development and commercial milestones, and royalties.
Capsida Biotherapeutics Inc., a gene therapy startup focused on advanced capsid engineering to generate tissue-selective vectors, emerged from stealth with $50 million in series A funding and another $90 million in cash from a strategic collaboration and option agreement in neurodegenerative disease with Abbvie Inc.
HONG KONG – Canbridge Pharmaceuticals Inc. signed a collaboration and licensing agreement that could be worth $581 million, gaining global rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize gene therapy candidates from Logicbio Therapeutics Inc. for the treatment of Fabry and Pompe diseases. The candidates are based on Logicbio’s adeno-associated virus (AAV) sL65, the first produced from its Saavy capsid development platform.
Biovie Inc. Chairman Terren Peizer said Neurmedix Inc. “had been offered a better deal in the shorter term,” but the contract signed by the two firms – which installs entrepreneur Cuong Do the new CEO of Biovie, replacing Peizer – made more sense to both parties. Santa Monica, Calif.-based Biovie is taking over the assets of Neurmedix Inc., of San Diego, bringing aboard phase III-ready NE-3107, an oral small-molecule therapy designed to inhibit insulin resistance in Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
While biopharma deals are not showing any drastic changes over last year, three areas that continue to dominate the landscape include the pandemic, oncology and cell and gene therapies. The lack of mega-mergers so far this year, specifically those above $10 billion, is also holding M&A values down by about 61% compared to this point in 2020, even though the number of mergers has climbed.
After cutting a deal worth up to $1.1 billion with Crispr Therapeutics AG, it took Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. only two days to come up with another collaboration that could top the $1 billion mark, this time with Obsidian Therapeutics Inc.
HONG KONG – Qilu Pharmaceutical Ltd. has inked a deal for the global rights to Peptron Inc.’s antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) candidate PAb-001-ADC for the treatment of various cancers. Seoul, South Korea-based Peptron stands to receive an up-front payment of $3 million and $539 million in milestone payments, as well as royalties.
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