As the number of mega-mergers have increased in recent years, and the purchase price of innovative companies rises, it is apparent that many lucrative buyouts fail to meet expectations, although a few outperform from time to time.
Biopharma deal value continued its upward trend in 2024, reaching $230.53 billion, a 6% increase from $217.69 billion in 2023, setting a new record in BioWorld’s data. Deal volume also grew, with 1,429 agreements across licensing, joint ventures and collaborations, up 3.5% from 1,380 in 2023, though still below the peak activity seen from 2019 to 2022.
Lantheus Holdings Inc. is making waves in M&A with its second big deal of the month – and year – the acquisition of Evergreen Theragnostics Inc. for $250 million in cash up front and up to an additional $752.5 million in contingent payments. The transaction follows announcement of a definitive agreement to acquire Life Molecular Imaging Ltd., a subsidiary of Life Healthcare Group Holdings Ltd., on Jan. 13 for $350 million in cash at closing and a further $400 million in milestone payments.
Inflammatory diseases specialist AB2 Bio Ltd. has signed a potential $686 million U.S. commercialization deal for its interleukin-18 neutralizing drug tadekinig. The agreement with Japanese pharma company Nippon Shinyaku Co. Ltd. includes an initial payment of $6 million, with a further $30 million due later this year.
Neomorph Inc. has signed another billion-dollar deal to develop molecular glue degraders, this time with Abbvie Inc. It’s the third agreement in the past year the five-year-old company has signed with big pharma companies in a space with lots of collaborative deals.
A year after its $175 million IPO in 2024, Arrivent Biopharma Inc. picked up rights to develop and commercialize Lepu Biopharma Co. Ltd.’s antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) candidate, MRG-007, worldwide excluding the greater China region.
In another Chinese newco out-licensing deal, Innocare Pharma Ltd. and Keymed Biosciences Co. Ltd. out-licensed their co-developed CD20×CD3 bispecific antibody (ICP-B02/CM355) to startup Prolium Bioscience Inc. in a deal worth up to $520 million.
A series of disappointments that drove Sage Therapeutics Inc.’s stock down by 85% since August of 2023 has evolved into an unsolicited takeout offer by partner Biogen Inc., followed by a lawsuit filed by Sage a week later. The two parties, both of Cambridge, Mass., first partnered in a $1.52 billion deal in 2020, primarily to develop Zurzuvae (zuranolone) for depression. The deal included Biogen taking a 10.2% equity stake in Sage, paying $104.14 per share, or $650 million total.
In a deal potentially worth $810 million for Regenxbio Inc., Nippon Shinyaku Co. Ltd. is partnering on the U.S. and Asian development and commercialization of iduronate-2-sulfatase enzyme RGX-121 for Hunter syndrome and RGX-111 for Hurler syndrome.
Insilico Medicine Inc. nabbed a potential $550 million-plus deal with Menarini Group’s Stemline Therapeutics Inc. for an unnamed preclinical small-molecule drug targeting solid tumors, adding to a $500 million deal inked by the duo in January 2024.